Learning Mongolian gaoxing? I also didn't hang out at Salvadors too much, but I didn't find anyone snooty there, well not any more snooty than sitting in a nice cafe in the West.
Anything in Mongolia that is interesting? I thought about biking through there at one point, those massive wide open plains.
@JanJal - you probably can. But we don't want to risk that you cannot or that someone in the airline you board in the foreign country (Chinese airline) says "you cannot board the plane, because you cannot legally enter Hong Kong" even if you are in transit only. Or some official in Hong Kong doesn't quite know the rules (or is being obtuse).
As Tiger says - never assume. I think we will keep avoiding Hong Kong until all PRC citizens have free entry.
We are living outside China now. When we return to visit we actively have to avoid Hong Kong as the Chinese Embassy in our country apparently cannot process a Hong Kong entry visa for Chinese citizens from outside the main cities. So it doesn't get any better if you try to visit Hong Kong from overseas.
Ha haaa, great comment. Particularly ugly or plain apartments are now to be referred to as "sky turds". That is 95% of the ones you see when you look around.
Pretty easy way to test if this is a genuine Chinese person or not - ask them to start replying to questions in Chinese. Then get your wife/friend to read it to see if it makes sense.
No results found.
So fast, so convenient. One star off for opening before the train station stop is connected!
Wow, just wow. Possibly the best Chinese food I have had in Kunming. And in one of the nicest, traditional courtyard style restaurant I have been in. A woman dressed in traditional qi pao playing a gu zheng just adds to it.
We had okra, mushroom soup, dried beef and chou dofu. All top notch with the bill coming in at just over 250 kuai. But we could have fed 3 people for that so not too bad at about 80-90 kuai each. Not the cheapest but for the quality, it's damn good.
If you have people visiting and want to take them to a traditional Chinese style restaurant with Yunnan style food, or want a romantic night out with a gal, you can't go wrong here. Close to Green Lake (down a little alley) for a romantic walk... Just perfect.
Pretty good place for getting all your documents translated and/or notarised. Note that there are a number of notaries in the building which you can find by going up the stairs (the elevators are impossible). But you have to find the stairs to do so... go in the door, head over to the right, go up the big wide stairs which head up a floor, turn right then right again into the elevator area and right again into the stairwells. Whew!
One point off for the elevators never being available and having to hike 7-9 flights of stairs (not good if you have to go 3-4 times a day like I often did!)
This does not stop at the Jinanya hotel at Da Shang Hui as the flyers state (and is on the images tab here). They need to have another stop in the same area or else they are missing out on covering a big chunk of the city.
You can take another bus, the 919C, I believe, if you are nearby Da Shang Hui, which leaves from the bus station on HeHong Lu, nearby the Qianxing road intersection. This bus goes every hour and is white, found at the western end of the station. It is operated by a different company and takes about 1 hour 10 minutes to get to the airport due to a large number of stops especially near the airport.
Great bus though if you can catch it!
Friendly people, even got to the talk to the vice consulate, who told me she had done a stint in Malaysia's Siberian Consulate!
English is spoken by some of the Chinese girls working at the desk who are pleasant to deal with. I assume they do Visa's as well but I wasn't here for a visa, this time!
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?