Forums > Living in Kunming > Where to buy backpacks in Kunming? Sorry, I can't help as my backpacks were bought overseas! But I do have a rather good eye for packs - the ones upstairs on the upstairs/downstairs store on Long Xiang Jie are definitely not fakes (which explains why the price is the same as I pay in the west for the same pack!). I suspect they re-import these from Hong Kong or the west somewhere because if they get it straight from the Chinese factories they are overcharging!
There is another place that sells top quality packs near the corner of Renmin Xi Lu and Huan Cheng Xi Lu, on the south side of Renmin Xi Lu heading west from the intersection. They have foreign packs/clothing and climbing gear (heaps including binas/quickdraws/ropes etc) which are all the genuine article but reflected in the price! Been looking at a walking axe from there but at 1000 kuai, she's pretty expensive!
What are you wanting the pack for? Day to day carrying stuff, 9 hour multiday hiking or something inbetween?
Forums > Food & Drink > Wasteful Business Lunches Yeah, I get da bao all the time, I don't care what others think, I am going to have a good feed later with the leftovers! I have convinced my local girlfriend that this is good too and now she doesn't care about face so much either and is sometimes the first to suggest da bao!
Forums > Living in Kunming > Verification HFCAMPO - you shouldn't trust people more because they have a GoKM verified email account as email accounts can be created simply and never used again. I could create an email account in about 5 minutes, verify my GoKM and look "safer", but I might still be spam. What I am trying to say is don't put too much trust into GoKM's or any website that requires email verification as its easy to get around. What it DOES do is lessen the likelihood of spam and ensure passwords can be reset easily.
And don't worry - people aren't trying to access or steal your computer/bank account on your computer by putting up useless info on GoKM. The trick with this is: never click on a link or install anything on your computer that looks suspect, whether the link/info appears on GoKM or anywhere else on the web. All the information and website functionality in the www.gokunming.com site is under GoKM's control so you can trust it pretty well. GoKM COULD have its security compromised (I remember the site was hacked a year or so ago), but its not likely and would be fixed pretty quickly.
Forums > Living in Kunming > New visa for China in HK Double entry 90 day visas were definitely not possible there when I went about 6 months ago. I tried and the woman at the counter told me you can only get those in your home country, the maximum they are allowed to give is 30 day double entry visas. I also asked an English couple who were after the same thing and they said they were told the same story.
I have no idea about the other visa types though.
Forums > Living in Kunming > Verification Most of them probably either haven't noticed or can't be bothered. It's not a biggie, for years GoKM didn't need verification of email and now it does.
My tip for GoKM staff would be to enforce verification of email before anyone can post, i.e. not make it optional. This is the defacto standard now for almost any forum/review site etc on the web so why not here?
Film Review: The Yunnan Great Rivers Expedition
发布者I really can't see rafting tourism replacing logging as the main industry. It would be a disastrous turn of events having thousands of tourists who can't swim, going into grade 3-4-5 rapids with guides only interested in making money i.e. the Chinese way.
Don't get me wrong, rafting can be done pretty safely with the right training, equipment and outlook. And there are groups in Lijiang that I know of who do it safely and who have the experience and know how to do so. But in a Chinese environment, if it was pumped as the latest way to make a living, I can see it being a train wreck. You would have wannabe guide cowboys undercutting people who do it safely leading to raft loads of Shanghai/Beijing/Guangzhou people pumping themselves up that they are invincible and heading off to do it. Quickly followed by deaths the shuttering of the industry and a situation probably worse than before.
By the sounds of it the people who made the movie were naive about China and came up with their idea before they got here. After experiencing what China is really like they realised in no way would it be feasible.
Kunming's metro could cost 300 billion yuan
发布者I smell Beijing printing money for bailing out local government. Why not? The increased inflation only affects the poor, and Beijings attitude towards them tends to be "screw 'em". Besides, it will devalue the yuan more, meaning less factories leaving China and higher GDP figures. Let the race to the bottom continue!
Metro Line 1 begins passenger trial period
发布者I know! December 2012!
Helpful?
By the sounds of it, the government doesn't even know. And now they don't even know if they can pay for it, the answer could be.... never?
There doesn't seem like there is much to do to finish line 1 and have full North/South line done except build the stations and set up the rail line. I would be surprised if that doesn't open by mid next year. But I am constantly surprised by this subway build so anything is possible!
Kunming's metro could cost 300 billion yuan
发布者Original (lines 1-6):
162kms for 5.7 billion USD = 35 million per km
Revised (lines 1-14):
562kms for 49 billion USD = 87 million per km
For reference:
Londons Jubilee line = 350 million per km
Singapores Circle line = 130 million per km
Madrid's Metrosur line = 58 million per km
And we must remember how much of the 562km will be above ground, probably 300km of it, hence much cheaper.
If they can't build it for about 2/3 the price of Spain, I would be very surprised. Say it cost 40 million per km the end price of 562km would be about 22.5 billion.
Airport temper tantrum lands Yunnan official in prison
发布者@Alien - you must be joking. Which country are you in?