The Book Club will meet Tuesday, January 9, 2018, at The Park, to discuss Mikhail Bulgakov's novel, THE MASTER AND MARGARITA, in which Satan arrives in both Roman Jerusalem 2000 years ago and in Moscow in the stalinist 1930's and turns out to be the most interesting and dramatic dude in town (think Milton's PARADISE LOST).
The Kunming Book Club has a wechat group in which many regular attendees participate, but meetings are open to all. Readings, locations and times of meets are chosen by attendees. New participants welcome.
That's creeping up on Chinese New Year, so you might want to check early on tickets to Jinghong. From Jinghong on you can probably just buy tickets the day before at the bus station.
Yahoo is not a brilliant site for news, but it works consistently for me here - perhaps there was a glitch for a week or so once, but that was a long time ago, can't quite remember.
I am a foreigner and at my local PSB I have never needed my landlord to go with me to register, I just needed lease and photocopy of his ID the first time, when I moved in. Later trips in and out of the country, I just had to show up with my passport - did this last week.
@Mike: I don't like this kind of development much, but why do you say it's built on gangsterism? Granted there are sure to be gangsters in real estate, but what do you know about Wang & Wanda?
The game involves some of the most incredibly-trained horses you will ever see. There can be any number of players - scores of payers - and it could never be played unless the horses, in leaping meles of a dozen or more in which riders sometimes fall off, were not trained to avoid stepping on anything on the ground.
In Afghanistan it is played mostly by the Uzbeks, in the north, where a famous chapandoz, or buzkashi player, is regarded by ordinary folk as virtually a legendary hero. This is a guy with enormous charisma and status, a cut above everybody else, and he'll get on his horse and ride 100 meters to buy a pack of cigarettes rather than walk. He is probably over 40 years old and may be over 50. Yet the saying there is, "Better a good horse rather than a good rider". His horse will probably be between 5 & 10 years old.
You watch these guys playing buzkashi and you begin to understand part of the reason that Central Asians have, time & time again, been able to conquer the settled populations south of the great swath of territory that occupies the center of Asia.
Incomparable.
A good thing, as simple concentration on the panda is primarily for nationalistic reasons and is also popular because they are considered cute, whereas environmental protection needs to include attention to more serious matters.
Hope they prosecute the people who bought from these guys, too - might give the shopkeeper folks a slight reduction in sentence, if convicted (?!), to rat on their customers.
Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.
As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.
Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.
Wanda opens 15 billion yuan Yunnan resort
发布者@Mike: I don't like this kind of development much, but why do you say it's built on gangsterism? Granted there are sure to be gangsters in real estate, but what do you know about Wang & Wanda?
Buzkashi Explained: Mysterious rules and traditions
发布者The game involves some of the most incredibly-trained horses you will ever see. There can be any number of players - scores of payers - and it could never be played unless the horses, in leaping meles of a dozen or more in which riders sometimes fall off, were not trained to avoid stepping on anything on the ground.
In Afghanistan it is played mostly by the Uzbeks, in the north, where a famous chapandoz, or buzkashi player, is regarded by ordinary folk as virtually a legendary hero. This is a guy with enormous charisma and status, a cut above everybody else, and he'll get on his horse and ride 100 meters to buy a pack of cigarettes rather than walk. He is probably over 40 years old and may be over 50. Yet the saying there is, "Better a good horse rather than a good rider". His horse will probably be between 5 & 10 years old.
You watch these guys playing buzkashi and you begin to understand part of the reason that Central Asians have, time & time again, been able to conquer the settled populations south of the great swath of territory that occupies the center of Asia.
Incomparable.
Chinese Panda conservation efforts aiding other species
发布者A good thing, as simple concentration on the panda is primarily for nationalistic reasons and is also popular because they are considered cute, whereas environmental protection needs to include attention to more serious matters.
Animal traffickers busted with 1.4 million yuan in contraband
发布者And, for that matter, on their suppliers as well.
Animal traffickers busted with 1.4 million yuan in contraband
发布者Hope they prosecute the people who bought from these guys, too - might give the shopkeeper folks a slight reduction in sentence, if convicted (?!), to rat on their customers.