Recommend you get a Chinese friend to assist. No English spoken. Six months to one year rent up front and one to two months as deposit is common. One month rent is the agent commission paid by you. Bargain 10% off quoted rent. Newer units have an additional monthly management fee. You will need lot's of rmb in hand given all the requirements, or rent from foreigners (see GoK classifieds). Apartments come from unfurnished to fully furnished with all major appliances and everything inbetween. Tell the agent the level you require. Also, make sure you have electric or gas water heater in addition to solar.

ATM
I would say $3.50 cad per withdrawal. It mostly depends on your bank, so you can ask RBC. Then you lose an additional 1% from the fx rates. Remember to call them and tell them you will be in China and using your atm card there. With ATM you have the convenience and not having a huge lump of rmb in China, cause taking a large amount of rmb out of China is much more troublesome. However, Chinese atm's limit the amount of rmb withdrawal to as little as 1k per transaction to as much as 5k (though I am not sure if you can get 5k in Kunming). I think you could find an atm that spits out 3k per transaction.

Wire.
Probably 35cad for a wire. Again mostly depends on RBC or the bank thats wiring out. Wire fx rates are strange, sometimes they are interbank rates like the ATM (which is really good) or sometimes they suck and your lose 3-4%. Again, ask your bank. With a wire, you need to go to your bank in person and fill out paperwork and know all the info of the account your sending too, including swift code. But like you said, it's just once, and once in China you can open a Chinese bank account in Kunming and use their atms for free. Chinese banks will charge you a fee outside your home area, so when you travel even just to another city nearby and use the atm at your Chinese bank, they add 1% service fee.

Tiger Leaping Gorge is not to be missed if you're in Yunnan.

Metro has some fresh herbs including basil for sale. There is some rosemary growing just in front of the Hump cafe (1st floor Burmese place).

Thanks for all the responses. Saw Gravity at the Wangfujing IMAX 3D. A really big and nice screen and amazing sound system. Gravity is a great movie; highly recommend. All shows M-F before 6pm is 100rmb after 130rmb. I think the best viewing rows are 8 to 12. You don't want to be stuck in any of the front rows as they are way too close to the screen.