Stay in a highly rated hostel and dodge where the Russians hang out.

Like TICexpats noted, some tour guides are minor level thugs, so don't get between them and there clients.

It's China beaches, so forget any visions of wide open freedom. The best beaches are all controlled, and the public ones have swimming boundary areas and lifeguards who blow whistles at you.

There was a very nice hot spring in Sanya, but since Yunnan has plenty of hot springs, save it for a rainy/bad day.

I remember when I was cycling through Naxi and Yi minority mountains during summer, there were lots of mushroom pickers trekking about. I stopped in a shack to have some hot instant noodles, and inside was a very large vat of boiling water with mushrooms. The water in that vat looks like it had been boiling mushrooms for a long time, very brown and thick with spores. Seems the mushroom pickers dumped the mushrooms into that vat to cook for a while, before selling them.

Why and how long, I wasn't able to figure out. They just said they did that before selling them. That leaves a lot of guessing. I thought boiling mushrooms would be considered cooking them for a meal and not some step in preparing them for sale. Of course, it was only one type of mushroom in that vat, so maybe it's specific to that mushroom.

Most of the chao erkuai I have had in Kunming is smothered in heavy salty sugary brown sauce and oil. The picture in the article of dajiujia looks much lighter. Your right though, cooking yourself is best.

I have exchanged USD cash at a Bank of China teller window in Kunming. There was a lot of paperwork required, and cash rate wasn't particulary good.

The airport arrival floor has another fx currency booth at the end close to the information counter.

CRS machines have higher limits than ATM, but since foreign cards are capped at 3k or less, it usually doesn't matter, unless it's ICBC.

ATMs are the way to go for safety, and between ICBC, CCB, and BOC, you can usually find one in any town. However, many banks in the USA require you to notify them of international travel plans for security reasons, or the card could be declined. Not sure what stance NZ banks have on that.

Spicy is ok, as long as they aren't trying to hide poor quality oil/ingredients. I'll give it a try this week. Also, going to see if the dajiujia exists in KM.