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Living in Yunnan

Inthelivinfor (50 posts) • 0

Hi everybody!

I am a Basque guy thinking about moving to Yunnan, but i am not sure where.

Last summer i decided to move from Shanghai because it was so polluted and also because learning Chinese was really difficult.

I took a train to kunming to check the city. I spent two days in the city and i felt it was more polluted and a very sad city. But after meeting some people they explained me that August was the rainning month in Kunming and that fact makes the city not so beautiful as in the rest of the year.

I also checked Chengdu and due to the Gay life i decided to stay in Chengdu.

But the pollution is way too heavy for me here and i dont know whether to go to kunming or Dali to keep on with my Chinese studies. I am a single gay guy and to be honest i get extremealy bored in straight clubs with all those boys that i cant touch LOL

Bein gay in china is kind of boring, and i move from chengdu because of the pollution, but i dont want to die of boremdoness in Dali or kunming.

I guess Kunming has a bigger gay live than Dali, but i still have this feeling of a sad city, so i am a little bit confused.

In anycase, i LOVE hiking and maybe for a semester i could forget about my sexual life. If people here could advice me about any CLEAN (blue sky) in yunnan.

My preferences would be something like

Having some mountains around, a kind of exciting gay life (utopic in china... but at least some choices) and If i could get some easy part time job as a teacher or anything. That would be amazing.

Thank you for reading and i hope that someone can tell me something :)

Natsymir (101 posts) • 0

Kunming is not sad, provided you can find some beauty in decrepit brutalist architecture. As somebody else has said, if you're white and can breathe you'll get a job in Kunming; it's possible to work as a teacher in Dali too, but I'd assume it's a little bit harder to get due to the laowai slacker percentage in Dali. For certain, you'll find at least some gay life in Kunming, I know Moondog hosts gay nights once in a blue moon, and there are a few chinese gay spots as well. As for gay life in Dali, no idea.

Kunming has nice mountains of its own, but they cannot stand up to the absolutely gorgeous mountains of Dali, that's for sure. But the thing is, those mountains are only four hours bus ride away, and then there's even more awesome (like, we're talking world-class) mountain hikes possible in Deqin and Nujiang; for these it doesn't matter much whether you live in Dali or Kunming, as it'd take a sleeper bus to get there anyhow.

My experience talking to gay friends has been that the general rule is the bigger the city, the better, and Kunming sort of grows on you; it might make for a depressing first impression, but just go to Green lake park on a sunday and see all the people playing, or to Zhangguangyin second hand market and the intense activity there; you'll learn to love the decaying concrete and the shabby cubbyhole restaurants and their awesome cheap food. You can very easily get away from the city and onto the grave-lined mountain sides; Mt Changchong is basically in the middle of the city, just walk off the northern parts of Baiyun lu and you'll soon be there, and the serene Bamboo temple is a short bus ride from the university area.

If you wanna do handicrafts, smoke pot and meditate along mountains creeks; it's Dali for sure. Otherwise, go to Kunming, it's the best base for discovering everything awesome that Yunnan has to offer, rather than just delving deep into some particular place.

yankee00 (1632 posts) • 0

Kunming is a depressing city. I'm pretty sure my liver will soon fail from drowning my sorrows everyday. But that's me.
It's probably a coincidence, but most of my gay and lesbian friends in Beijing were from (different parts of) Guangxi. Yangshuo is a popular destination. I know that's not Yunnan, but I just thought I'd mention it.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

You might also find clean air and gay life in some of the other coastal cities. Xiamen, Qingdao, and Dalian may suit. The former will be very hot in the summer. The latter two will have cold winters (tempered by warmer sea air) and more standard Mandarin speech. Hangzhou is another option. These cities have been open for longer, are more cosmopolitan (especially Xiamen) and are more liberal.
But tier 1 cities will always have the most vibrant 'night life'.

Inthelivinfor (50 posts) • 0

Thank you all!!

I was checking Xiamen, Qingdao and Dalian cities before i took a train to kunming from shanghai last summer. I declined those options because i could predict it was gonna be damn boring and some chinese boys adviced me it was not gonna be as clean as i would expect.

So i guess i will stick for Kunming.

I will pack all my things and i will take a train tomorrow, unless my friend (she is also not sure what to do) needs some more days to think about where to go.

I am kind of ashamed to say that i am Caucasian. I wish multicultural education reaches China Soon.

OceanOcean (1193 posts) • 0

Am I the only one who doesn't find Kunming depressin, then? I've travelled to dozens of Chinese cities and Kunming if one of the very few where I would choose to live. If you're looking for hot nightlife venues then other cities will be better for you. But if you like nice weather, relatively low pollution levels, a laid-back atmosphere and access to minority cultires and other Asian countries then Kunming takes some beating.

Inthelivinfor (50 posts) • 0

Well i said depressing because it was raining for 16 hours non stop and it was kinda foggy. So i was a little bit disappointed, but i must say i didn't stay long enough!

One day and a half, or less i don't remember very well.

GoK Moderator (5096 posts) • 0

I like Kunming. It is the only city in China, that I have lived in, where I have felt at home.
But I am married, have a family, and am not looking for 'action'. I also have the pleasure of living on the outskirts of the city, by Dianchi.

OceanOcean (1193 posts) • 0

@Inthelivinfor
Rain?? Blimey - the visit must have been ages ago. We haven't had decent rainfall here for years! And boy do we need it...

Inthelivinfor (50 posts) • 0

Well it was not pouring down, but it was raining. Everything was wet everywhere. I was last August.

Am not saying you don't, i am only saying i god a bad feeling about the city. That's all.

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