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Baoshan Life

JanJal (1243 posts) • 0

My wife is from more remote parts of Baoshan prefecture, so we have visited in the city to see her friends on few occassions. Been years now though.

As an example of practical limitations, one friend family there asked me to cook a certain dish, but butter was not available in shops at the time.

There was at least one restaurant offering western-like dishes (steak, coffee, etc) back then. Chinese options are plentiful.

lemon lover (1006 posts) • +3

Baoshan is a typical Chinese rural city. That is growing fast with more and more concrete. In that sense no different than hundreds of similar cities in China. The city has an interesting history but the old town was already bombed out of existence during WW-II. Now the only historical place is a temple complex in the foothills to the west.
There is no expat life or anything “high” culture in Baoshan but if you are looking for an immersion in to China it is a good place; you will not be distracted by loaway things and will meet a much more friendly and open local population. In Kunming, Dali or Lijiang you will be just one more loawai, in Baoshan you are special.
No western restaurant but the local food is good with plenty of fresh vegetables year around because the area has a mild climate. The area has the night BBQ culture so snaking out at night is always possible.

If you really need something like butter then just order it on line like you can order everything on line in China.
In short for emerging into the expat life it is the wrong place for emerging into China it is a good place.

Peter99 (1246 posts) • +2

Yea, the city would not necessarily be the key to Baoshan, its the surrounding that would.

Image having weekend off and going up the Nujiang gorge. Not many expats can beat that.

lemon lover (1006 posts) • +1

It is of course snacking out and not snaking out also I am pretty sure you will be able to find some snake ;-)

EastHastings (2 posts) • 0

Thanks for all the pointers, it's been informative and given me some things to think about.

Baoshan does seem to be your generic, run-of-the-mill 2nd or 3rd tier Chinese city. Just need to figure out whether the potential to explore the surrounding areas is worth it or not.

Shame about the border town, I always seem to rock up in places after the 'glory days' have passed ;)

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

Be aware that although Baoshan is classed as a prefecture level city, unlike other cities of the same classification (like Kunming) it is not an urban area. As such it cannot be compared to a tier 2-3 city. That is not necessarily a bad thing.
Baoshan has one county level city (think of something like tier 6), a district, and 3 counties. Total population 2.5m, total area about 20 000 sqkm.

Ishmael (462 posts) • 0

@tiger: Do you mean it's not officially classified as an urban area? I'm not quite sure what you mean - it certainly looks like a 'town', at least.

JanJal (1243 posts) • 0

Baoshan City is a city for all intents and purposes compared to its surroundings, including to those elsewhere in Baoshan preferecture.

But I also wouldn't give it tier 3 or even 4 overall in the national scheme.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • -1

It needs to be borne in mind that in China a city is an administrative area, that may include large areas of rural land, not a predominantly urban area.
For example, Kunming now also includes Anning. When you looking at population figures to try and estimate the size of a city, this does not always give a good indication of the size of any urban area, or its level of development.

lemon lover (1006 posts) • -1

Like more cities in Western Yunnan Baoshan has grown very big recently and started to absorb the surrounding villages. North to south is about 10 Km, East west about 3 Km. It lies in the Baoshan valley which is very fertile and densely populated as well.

They are constructing a high speed rail to Baoshan from Dali but it is seriously delayed because of an underground river flooding the tunnel leading to the Lancanjiang river bridge. But when that is fixed it should be in easy travelling distance from Dali and Kunming.
The mountains around it are rather empty.

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