GoKunming Forums

why you still live in Kunming

taufic (18 posts) • 0

most of the posts against moving and live in Kunming because of
noise,air and water pollution, low level of medical care and life cost is not so cheap
Raised my curiosity to know why you still live so far in this city

Alien (3819 posts) • 0

@taufic: simply because the issues that you mention, while real, are not really all that bad. I wouldn't call medical care here at a 'low' level, though I wouldn't call it high, either, and is certainly more than sufficient for the great majority (of urban dwellers, anyway) most of the time; and anyway unless you need some kind of daily care for serious conditions, there are better medical facilities available in Hong Kong, Chiangmai and Bangkok, not so far away. As for 'not so cheap', well, it depends on your standard of comparison, but it doesn't seem expensive to me - where do you live and how expensive is it?. Complaints about pollution are largely in comparison to how it used to be, which was better than it is today - the situation is certainly much better than in many, many other Chinese cities, and that in quite a few non-Chinese ones.
Another reason for staying here is that the province is really beautiful and varied, and the people are a bit more laid back than in much of the rest of China.
Then, for some of us, there is a longtime fascination with many aspects of Chinese cultural, history, development, etc., which take on a somewhat particular character from many other parts of China because Yunnan is a border province with a unique history and a great variety of local cultures.
Finally, I've got a lot of friends here.
taufic, have you ever spent any time in China? if not, you may be looking at it from an outside perspective, and there are many outside perspectives about the country which are exaggerated in one direction or another. Some people bring those perspectives with them (and no, outside perspectives are not useless), and it takes them awhile to begin to see what they see rather than what they think they are seeing. This is particularly the case for those who haven't yet, or don't ever, learn to speak the language, which is a rather silly way to live anywhere.

Silvio DaVinci (282 posts) • 0

Because it's far away, yet so close. Unfortunately I still get haunted by forums. Especially posts like this.

I agree with Johannes: find a bar and ask any laowai why they're still here. They'll keep you busy till midnight.

Haali (1178 posts) • 0

So far (nearly 6 months in) I'm not that impressed by Kunming. I swear it's rained on average every other day while I've been here! Okay, its been the rainy season I hear you say. I hope winter and spring are less damp! But on the other hand, it ain't such a bad place to live either. Its got a few ok places to eat and drink, and the pollution ain't bad compared with most Chinese 2nd/3rd tier cities. 6/10

flyer90 (7 posts) • 0

Yup, rainy season is rainy and dry season is dry. Between now and May it should only rain/snow a few times. And plus, rarely does it rain all day during the rainy season, there are small showers (many being at night) and then the rest of the day is nice

Haali (1178 posts) • 0

I've lost count of the number of days where it has rained all day, admittedly usually not very heavily, but raining none the less.

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