What is the purpose? Well, I can see a few, depending on the person.

- A vent for the things that one actually gets annoyed at, but dont want to show when it happens.

- Or an info for people who are planning to come, to see that - even though I do agree that KM is a great city and I love it - there are things that are "different" so they wont come with some hyper-idealistic idea of how lovely EVERYthing is. For the locals, children taking a dump on the road is natural and for a grown up to do it, its not all _that_ big of a deal, but for most westerners is its such a foreign behavior that it commands a reaction. Some see it as quaint (I do), while others may see it as horrid.

- Or as a common humor: they look at much of our behavior and laugh or grunt at what we do and how we look and act (with all right), and for us its the same. The biggest difference is that they can comment on the spot to their friend, but many of us dont have contact with each other - or other foreigners - than by this forum.

- Or just a waste of time.

Pick which reason you feel fits your universe. :)

As for me, I love KM and China and the culture, etc. But just as I can get annoyed at my home city Uppsala, or country men in Sweden, I can also sometimes get annoyed or make observations about KM.
So I dont see it as gripe. And if it is, I really dont see any problem with griping. People should be allowed to gripe about the things that annoy them as they are allowed to praise the things that they love. Just because some maybe gripe here about a few things, doesnt mean they dont love KM or the people or the country.
Or am I wrong?
:)

And for balance - if that is really needed - I can second Danmairen, except maybe part two of number 5. Yes, the girls/ women are beautiful and hot, but I have not had much success in approaching them beyond very polite and friendly conversations. But I think thats my problem... I have the same lack of success in Sweden too :D
Id also like to add to 2, 6 and 9, that put together, you get a small lovely local restaurant where they treat you as family. I have one that I really love and where most of my meals are taken.

People Spitting is just the ;ost disgusting thing I have ever seen...

the blatantly sneaking in front of you whilst you stand stupidly in a quueue for ages...the non-existence of the queueing up! the old ladies are particularly sneaky.

Oh, one thing, about spitting...
Spitting on the floor in a restaurant.
Walking into a small side-street restaurant (my fav) at the end of lunchtime can be hazardous, as the floor is just filled with morsels spat out whilst eating. Slippery as hell, especially when mixed with snot!

But again... for them its just natural. I almost fainted (but made no fuss about it) when I had a Chinese woman (from Harbin) over for dinner in my home in Sweden, and she gets some bit in her mouth she didnt want and just spit it out on the floor. I calmly walked to the kitchen and got a small bowl and calmly offered that she rather use that if she gets something in her mouth she didnt want. She answered "thats ok", meaning she didnt need it since the floor was there... :D
That was my first real encounter. But coming to KM I realized that this is normal behavior.

hehe,, I completely forgot about the queue issue. 5000 years of history and noone figured out that everything runs more smoothly if you accept this weird and decievingly simple concept. Next time I'll have to get on a bus I'll tiptoe around the old ladies, trip a kid and elbow a couple of guys. If they start to complain I'll have my "This is China,, if you don't like it,," speech ready.

But, do we do anything about it? What do you do?

When I see anyone spitting or blowing their nose onto the floor anywhere near me, I give them a look of disgust. When someone tries to push into a line in front of me I simply push them back out. On one occasion I was about to put down my money down to pay for a bus ticket, when a bloke jumped up beside me and put his money into the payment area. I grabbed his money, scrunched it up and threw it on the floor. This kind of behaviour is not simply a cultural anomaly to be shrugged off, but actually needs to be discouraged by all.

By far the worst thing in Kunming and China in general is the SMOKING! And the foreigners are by far the worst! They take full license to smoke everywhere in an obnoxious manner. I can't wait to get back home just so I don't have to passively smoke, it is absolutely horrible.

DavidJorm, "And the foreigners are by far the worst". Right,, coz the Chinese are very considerate when it comes to smoking. How exactly do you smoke "in an obnoxious manner",, do people come up to you to blow smoke in your face? Most foreigners here only smoke where Chinese people smoke in the first place,, I do not believe we are worse than the Chinese when it comes to that. The nanny state you (we) have back home wants smokers to wear flourescent green jackets when we smoke outside so that innocent bystanders can keep their distance. If you don't like smoking you sure came to the wrong part of the world :-)

Well, I do love Kunming but I'll add a couple to the negative list

1. I really hate the constant car alarms. I can't figure it out...seems almost like a contest to have the loudest, most obnoxious sound and they seem to set them to go on and leave them running for a long time...especially when going into a store. Like I said, I don't understand but it sure is noisy for no clear reason.
2. And, of course, for noise there's little competition with car horns. I think they should disable all car horns on cars sold here. Horns get lots more wear and tear than brakes I suspect.
OK, that's enuf....still do love this place and these warm people.