Looks like everyones Friday night end of the week rage venting dreams have come true!
No ones apologising nnoble, not sure why you are claiming they are. I also said Gaoxing was "chasing tail", which he was/is by his own admission. At no point did I accuse him of rape.
Dazzer, the important point I believe is the attempt. Thank god he wasn't successful, but on another day he might have been. This bad behaviour reflects badly on lao wai in China because we are stereotyped into one group by many Chinese. Again, unfortunate, but true.
Harriis, who castigates only foreigners? We can (and by the looks of the responses here) castigate anyone we want. No one stated we were castigating only foreigners, I came the closest by saying that when foreigners did something bad, it unfortunately is bad for all of us as the responses to the video show we are all one big group according to many Chinese. As such we should discourage any behaviour of that type in the extreme to other foreigners... to make living in China as easy as possible for us as lao wai. I will castigate anyone however that attempts rape, no matter colour/creed/religion or hairstyle.
Thanks roberto's friend, I think my girlfriends family are slowly understanding, but takes time to bring down years of misunderstanding/ignorance/prejudice. The interesting thing is my girlfriend says here family are very forward thinking and not conservative! There must be some seriously bad impressions out there of foreigners...
Rik, I think we agree in principle on everything except how to change the opinions of stereotyping Chinese people who group lao wai into one group. I think using a collective approach would work best in China (hence my desire to see fellow lao wai pour scorn on the guys actions hopefully making future lao wai visitors to China with a similar attitude think twice), if you believe another way will work, that is your choice. The other thing - please stop misquoting me. Twice you have said "And if they are, you should put them in their place, not apologize or call for harsher punishments for non Chinese." I did not apologize or call for harsher punishments for non Chinese. Putting words in my mouth makes you look silly as it spawns comments on statements that were never made (nnoble's) and makes the argument more extreme and hence opinion more polarised.


'No-car day' underlines Kunming's car conundrum
发布者Call me an optimist but I think once the Subway is up and running there is going to be a substantial drop in car usage and ownership. Its fairly obvious that Kunming has had some major developments of new living/working areas on its outskirts over the past 10 years with nothing built to connect them together (except for the overcrowded bus systems). The result is people somewhat needing to own a car to enable the to get around efficiently. The subway (once full implementation happens) should go a long way to solving the problem provided the integrate effectively with the bus system... lets just hope its that simple (I did say I am an optimist!).
Around Town: Biking the trails of Changchong Mountain
发布者Hi Omgiri, I aren't in Kunming at the moment, returning in September. Will be keen for a ride up there with you if you are still around! Just have to figure out how to get my bike there from New Zealand...
I knew I wasn't dreaming! www.gokunming.com/[...]
A half decent mtb park would be a pretty cheap way and a good start to creating a world class training facility for MTB'ers. There are so many bikers around KM as well that I imagine the manpower for maintaining the trails wouldn't be hard to find.
Around Town: Biking the trails of Changchong Mountain
发布者Hey, where is this trail, it looks like fun! How do you get there? I have biked a lot around Changchong Shan and not seen this one...
Just a random idea... I remember reading a while ago the Kunming government talking about investing some ridiculous sum of money into making Kunming a high altitude international sports location. Was I just dreaming that??
If I aren't dreaming, it would seem like a good option for them would be to section off a piece of Changchong shan and earmark it for a MTB park. I am sure local clubs could provide the manpower and experience to develop the trails, it would just need government sponsorship of the land and tools, which could be dual use with forestry (which tends to be the norm where I am from and works pretty well - the trails get ripped up once every 20 years when the forest is harvested, a good opportunity to make improvements, while the trails provide forestry workers with foot access through the forest). As there are no shortage of both foreign and local riders, it would seem a feasible idea. If it was done to a high enough standard, it could also be advertised as a cheap high altitude training location internationally. Who's with me???
Getting away: Changchong Mountain
发布者Bugger, might have lost that big comment I wrote as I think I got logged out.
I tried the route but was turned around by fake policemen who stopped me from attempting the road I wanted I think due to a quarry doing some explosives work (I heard the booming!).
This map shows the route I took kind of (the blue markers) to the road, then a new route I just mapped out as well. Will be trying this one tomorrow probably... maps.google.com/[...]
Will let you know how it goes. My route from the other day somehow became corrupted on my phone so I can't upload it. I ended up cycling out to a town called Daoshao Cun and then cycled back.
Getting away: Changchong Mountain
发布者Might head out there tomorrow if anyone else is keen? 8am start, will bike up past the new visitor centre then keep heading north along the tracks. Have checked it out on google earth and it looks quite rideable. Have mapped it out (not in detail!) here: maps.google.com/[...]
Anyone see anything wrong with my route (other than a couple of times not actually being on a road... will have to find my way I think!)?