@Napoleon
Right we are in China, the worst of all. lol

So, you say there is absolutely no more corruption? Wow cool, that's great news.

A little fun game. Just for fun, try to open a business, preferably in food&beverage or education. Just run the first steps, a few very basic documents. Tell me how much the cost of the documents are and how much you pay for the other let's call it 'lubrication' costs.

Look, I am sorry, I get it, you need to paint pink clouds all over the place so you can, withdraw yourself from the actual real world. I am not negative, a few things suck, and that's why I am trying to help to point things out, if I know. Nobody has to pay attention to it, or if you disagree, fine. A few things I am happy to share, to prove that those things really happened.

Others I'd rather like to keep for myself. Some still worry me thinking about it.

I have to walk the normal people streets, I am dealing with more chinese people than foreigners, I have friends from all classes and social circles, and I don;t go and tell them "Hey China sucks!" [even though it sometimes sucks.

They come to me, and they tell me that they have problems dealing with the way China is run. This little girl I know 10 years old, came to me one day and said, she hates China, she had a traumatizing experience, and she is smart she cannot fathom, some of those things happening to her.

China is the way it is, many Chinese don't care, or they are lazy to change anything. So it will be exactly the same for eternity, if we withdraw.
Do I like to meet the real good and honest people, the ones that can jump over the own shadow? Hell yeah!
China is a great place. But the majority of people [when not in the friend circle] are not very ethically educated.

I like China, especially Yunnan. But I don't have to pretend that China is a paradise. There is a general notion of not giving a sh*t about anything and anyyone, unless their are family, friends, or people rewading you, [you don't think so?} just for fun pretend you need help and see what happens, or what not! When we got attacked and both of us screamed help and that that guy had a weapon, people were laughing and taking photos.

People have a greed and personal gain thinking, that is beyond everything you could imagine in the USA or in the West.

Is it Chinese peoples fault? No! It's from decades of mismanagement and famine
..it was similar in Germany the only difference is that the place was leveled, but even then people helped eachother, even strangers.
Tell me if you can see that happening in China!

Watch the documentary "The fog of war" about McNamara, when he talks about buiilding airfields for the Flying Tigers in Yunnan, what happened to people that were squeezed to death under those steam rollers. Compare that to the fatal traffic accidents and violence victims here, and you will see, it's the same stuff.

...it's a matter of educations [the one that seems to be too expensive for you]. You won't see this in other Chinese cultures in neighboring countries.

This is all sad but ok, with me!
I, and not only I, literally all my friends have witnessed or experienced first hand, attacks, unreasonable violence. Just get in any of the green busses, look at the screen and enjoy the daily news. just news of one day, and it's just the stuff that's in the news and the stuff that got filmed. Ask any of your chinese friends or gf/bf, and see what is going on around you.

And Chinese are very buhaiyisi about bad news about their own country/state. So you can imagine that it's not the same fear mongering news, as in the states.

Skim the news, just the stuff that got recorded, on baidu, just for kunming. You will be surprised, how fast pink changes into blood red.

I thought China is the safest place on earth for the first 5 years in China. And then in a very short time it all changed.

You can throw your jokes now. It's all my fault and over exaggerating this, and what not. But as I said, I am not negative or looking for bad stuff. But I am also not naive, or gullible.

If you still think china is safe and clean and full of honest and morally excelling official and businessmen. Hooray! Then I really would like to hire you for running some applications for our next business. Or stuff that turns out to be very hazardous.

I am running towards my second decade in China and things have changed but a culture that has it's corruption so deeply culturally rooted, I doubt that there will ever be a real change.

Try to register a company and enjoy. Our consultant said, depending on the business, you should prepare [at least] 20 to 30 k for all the "extra fees" ...not to them,...to the people in offices. And that was already with their help and guanxi.

I like china but for sure not, for the way things are done here.
And if you look over to taiwan, or hongkong, you will see that people are much happier and more relaxed and get things done.

About being in a country not dangerous or corrupt, tell me one that is more corrupt and violent than China!

I come from a place in Germany that is considered, not safe, and I have never personally experienced any violence, corruption is non-exist in there, and as I said, drug smuggling, drug related crime, you can f*cking walk drunk through the red light district without getting screamed at or attacked.

Come to Germany and I invite you. Even dangerous places are safe compared to China.

China is promoting [nationally justified] violence, starting in preschool. There is a lot of repressed anger in society, social pressure, and sexual depression, and love relationships are heavily directed by relatives, divorced virtually impossible without major conflicts. So I am not saying it's anyones fault, but the potential is there, and I and many [actually the majority] of my friends have seen it. I was lucky for many years, and the last 2 years have been remotely safe,[ but also we are staying in much more often]. I like living here, but please don't mock me about this. As I said, violence and cheating, left a few scars that, even if you disagree, would heal better, if people wouldn't make fun of it.

Thanks Napoleon, And I hope you luck will stay with you.

Can't be arsed reading that, far too long. So let's agree to disagree.

Hold on: Tell me a country more corrupt and violent than China?
That just caught my eye.

Clearly you're on another planet or your atlas has quite a few pages missing.

The task ahead of me, changing your mind to see that you are very unlikely to be shaken down by officials, illegally held by police, beaten by hooligans or murdered in you sleep whilst in China is too far from your current train of thought. Its worrying that places like Somalia, Syria, Northern Ireland, El Salvador must just not exist for you.

-Illegally held by police, really....quite common.

And in extension, not getting a trial for years, it's all over the news, house arrests without reason. etc
A buddy of mine was arrested for vandalism, they prepared to deport him, until they found out, it was another foreigner, there were no explanations, after 3 days in [VIP,-whatever that means] prison,-they finally found [or claimed to] the guy who did it, another foreigner.

Quote policeman :"Buhaoyisi [not debuqi] but you all look the same.
They never took the charges off him officially. Now every time he wants a visa he has to answer for a misdemeanor he never committed. Riddle me that.

Beaten by a hooligan? no!

-but random Chinese people helping, to beat the foreigner, [coz if somebody is beating up a foreigner the foreigner must have clearly done something wrong].
Only twice of the few times I got randomly attacked, random bystander were starting to join the fight [beating], one actually said it out loud. I don't know what defines a hooligan, but I guess that comes close.

Murdered in your sleep? Check the news.
I personally know one person who got murdered, not in his sleep but he was followed home, dunno what is worse.
It's all over the news, a lot of people have their windows barred up to the 4th floor. For burglars but I think it helps with the homicides too.

Abducted kids? sure a lot, only behind Mexico and Columbia, as much as I remember.
There were news articles about kids being abducted out of a running van right on Beijing lu in Beichen, not close from VC Park.
But you can find stories like that all ofe the chinese news. type abducted kids, slaves workers, on baidu....sad!

Knife attacks and robberies: officially pretty low, inofficially quite high compared to "violent states'
Let a chinese friend walk into a police station and ask for the roughtimates of armed robberies,,coz you wanna move to the district, etc. etc.
Ask again as foreigner very different outcome.

Sexual assault and rape {I wish I could add domestic sexual assault here but in China it's not a crime]: Check the statements or stats, you can find [even] online.

Corruption, also check online, keep in mind that the bar for corruption in China is very high, and the rate of detection very low.
If you find time talk to someone working in the government, he or she will give you a rough idea how it works and what numbers we are talking about.
Just check on gokunming, the last 6 month, about the high gov. officials, getting sh*t canned!do you think it happens only on top level?

If you need a rough estimate, what about the general they caught. Didn't the call him general gold or something?

He is one of a Division [literal military unit size] of generals.

Dude, corruption is huge here. they even have inofficial guidelines how to not get caught and what kind of treats are difficult to be found as graft, or corruption rewards.

Read the news, chinese or western news.

Keep in mind that even some of the nastiest countries and states [in terms of violent crimes and corruption],- have actual statistics and reports.

Even the german embassy now states, [from very safe] to 'considerately safe', and 'one of the safest country in central Asia', that attacks on foreigners, can be expected, and that certain parts of the country as well as tier cities should be avoided at night and especially as woman.

Doesn't sound that safe to me.

I am not making this up, or try to bring people down.

I still like China, it's a nice place to live, but it's not what it seems to be, which isn't that surprising. At a place where appearance counts more than anything else.

Don't even listen to me, really just follow the news. You will see, unfortunately but true.

Plus I swear to god, the main reason why TianJing port blew, will be traced back to low level corruption, a closed eye on regulations and such.

Northern Ireland is pretty peaceful and safe these days, Nap

Well I've been here a long time. Im saying corruption 10 years ago and now are completely different.

I can also see how coming from Germany anywhere could be considered an eye opener. I remember visiting Dusseldorf and Dresden and seeing people wait at the side of the road for the man to turn green, even when there wasn't a car in sight. Another was being honest enough to pay for the bus after you got on as there were no clippies at work. I, coming from Zimbabwe, was shocked.

Now, take your 20 years in China and imagine that you spent them somewhere else, somewhere really noted as being dangerous or currupt, you'd be happy to retire in Kunming for the rest of your life.

Try having war vets outside your house with knives and guns, but the police are guarding them, not you. Imagine going down the shop but being stopped for Mukiwa tax by anyone, sometimes not even in uniform. Imagine having doctors saying that even though you have insurance they'll only treat you if you have a gift for them. Imagine having to stick 20-50 dollars in your passport each time you leave the country just so you can leave/ come back. Imagine calling a taxi but not knowing if you'll be hacked to death or be brought to where you want to go.

You haven't lived, and that's Zimbabwe! a reasonably well to do African country. So imagine what Somalia, South Sudan, Congo are like to do business/ live day to day in.

Now think about your fruit basket again and how your friend was arrested but then let go when the police made a mistake.

Now, tell me that China is the worlds most dangerous and corrupt country again so we can all have a laugh.

Ali vs Frazier
Sugar Ray vs Roberto Duran
Napoleon vs Dudesons

Live on Pay TV

What odds would I get?

HFCAMPO vs. Matt/ etc. etc. etc.

Ha.ha.

@Napoleon
You know what? I totally agree. In direct compare, you are right, totally and absolutely.

I have never been to Zimbabwe, but if you say it is dangerous and corrupt, I am not doubting you a bit.

In direct compare, yes China is probably the safest place on earth. And don't let Germany's stiffness, fool you, try Duisburg Marxloh late at night, even cops don't dare to go in there. Berlin Neukoeln, no go zone for cops.

But I guess Zimbabwe is not a developed country-pretending not to be? Promoting safety and low crime rates? censoring any negative or violent news to the outside? pretending that women are equal to men? No rapes? pretending to have no violence, pretty much at all?

Is China safer than many African states, or safer than a war zone? sure it is.

But is it even close to be safe, compared to Europe, or even the states [keep lax gun laws, and all the other US shenanigans, in mind], and even more important, -safer than they say,China is.

Look at your foreign affairs office or your embassy, of if you don't trust your country any other one. Read the travel advise. Check the news once in a while, it's plastered with bad news, crime violence, corruption, etc.

I am happy for you, that you found a safer place to live. You deserve it, everyone deserves it.

I personally don't like to be jumped by a group of any kind and beaten without reason. I have seen too much senseless violence here, and I am not a party animal, I don't pick fights. and for all the bad crap that has happened to me, it has been to often and too frequent, to count it on the 'this guy just had bad luck' option.
Plus my Chinese and foreign friends, have similar experiences or at least observed it first hand.

I have lived and passed through many dangerous parts of Europs by I have never experienced anything like this. And I don't even mean the amount but the total disregard for life, for so little reason.
People get in brawl back home, some get robbed, but most are let go, after a certain point. But here stabbing one with a knife after begging to not get murdered, just for the sake of his kids, I spare you the quote, but it still gives me shivers. Somebody jumping repeatedly on my friend's head, after he got glassed, hit with a bottle, - with an intent or at least carelessness if he dies, or ever open his eyes again, for nothing more than being a foreigner. At least in Europe you can look out for those Neo Nazi types.

My hometown is far less violent and crime ridden, than Brlin or Duisburg, but still a lot of bad stuff happening there, but even there, it's still safer than in China. Some people still don't lock their doors at night, they have their stuff stored outside. And most importantly, you can walk the street at night, rather safely.

Anyway, this has gone far too much off topic.

Stay safe and enjoy your stay in Yunnan and China, as I will watch over my shoulder, trying not to be too fearful. and dodge corrupt officials.....lol
And I hope someday Zimbabwe will be as safe as Germany, but without being so darn stiff and boring!!! LOL

Cheers, mate!