Nice interview! Ghost Town plays today for a week at the MOMA in NYC - moma.org/visit/calendar/film_screenings/8878. More info can be found on the dGenerate Films website - dgeneratefilms.com/catalog/ghost-town-fei-cheng/.

I like the cages. They make handy places to put things out to dry. Buy fresh walnuts, put them out in a basket in the cage and they dry quick. Anywhere else, slow.

I filmed the process at my home: blog.luofei.org/archives/1894

Cloud seeding is based on shaky science at best and claiming to have done it with (obvious) little result seems more like an attempt to get a couple of cheap points with the public. As to the ingenious Long-range-intelligent-fire-bla-bla-bla I am fairly certain that helicopters can do a much better, faster and safer job spreading fire repressing chemicals.

Chris; just as I said, your writing creations will improve. ;-(

a fantastic read. thanks for writing!

Here's some info from Yunti Hotel's website (www.yunti-hotel.cn/), I think you'd enjoy Building B's gumnasiums and spacious farking lot:

"Yun Ti Hotel is located in Xin Jie LaoCheng Yuan Yang, YunNan China-the home of cloudy sea and terraced field, At present it is the only one three stars hotel with complete set of profection and high standarel service[...]

"Building A has 113 rooms with vievo rooms、parlour rooms、stand and rooms、sweet rooms、set of lunnry rooms、magnifilent hall. Nefied halls's bar. High –tech bussiness center and supermarket int it and guests will fell at home.

"Building B has a functional hall which can contain2400 presons. It has gumnasiums KTV rooms、bars、some meeting rooms、sanna roomsand a large farking lot."

Also, tonight (Friday) 8:00pm at Nordica:
Four Seasons - Spring
A Showcase of Female Artists in Yunnan

Matthew; Thank you for that. I think that I have been under a silly misunderstanding (?) I always assumed that the writer originates the tag words and, thus, may not have covered everything. Now, I guess that you guys do that?

the travel tag link will help you find travel-related stories: www.gokunming.com/en/blog/tag/travel

and (albeit brief) hotel descriptions are on the listings pages for the hotels: www.gokunming.com/en/listings/itemlist/yuanyang/hotels/

Chris; No doubt, your new window view has had an affect on your writing creations (Actually, this story may have been conceived before the new view, but let's pretend otherwise).

Is it not possible to have a section of this Website specifically set up to permit easy searches to well-written travel stories. Yes, we have Lonely Planet, but there's also an important niche for stories like this.

I can't imagine that you'll not offer this story to every airline that flies into China, for example.

Fantastic pictures - can't wait to return.

One small critique; hotel descriptions would be nice.

"After contemplating a sinkful of dirty dishes in need of attention, I decide to head down the street for a beer in the sunshine" 呵呵

Wow. I am jealous of your view.

Chris; Now, living away from Kunming, your story is a joy. Will you, now, relocate your office back to the apartment with the fantastic new view. Which reminds me of the saying, "A writer is working his hardest when staring out the window".
Kunming will be totally renovated with the removal of the 'cages'. I look forward to seeing the result.
My only fear is that landlords will reinstall things back inside the window.
By the way, who gets the financial compensation - there's a fortune in metal there.

Is there the option of buying a pass for discounted admission?