first, public smoking! have you been to the new changshui airport at night time, a tons of people smoke inside the airport lobby, and no security ever beat them down for it. yes, smokers in restaurants, stores, airports, buses, elevators, well, simply everywhere, they can careless if there are children or chemicals that could burn nearby, and most of them will be ready to start a fight with you if you tell them to stop and they say it is non of a foreigner's business, I can't tell you how many near fights I got since moved to China because of this, it is just ridiculous, of course if you are a smoker then China is heaven for you. sometimes I wonder why my wife married a foreigner instead of a local, but it must be hard to find a non smoker locally. next thread will be the second thing, guess what might it be?
I don't think it's trolling. He has a valid gripe. The new law came into effect early this year and it might as well not even been. It's going to take a long time for Chinese people to change this old culture habit. They smoke in elevators, hospitals and they know they are not suppose to but the enforcement is not there yet. I feel your pain @culture but frankly, there is nothing YOU can do.
It is the same thing in Beijing... Telling them to butt out causes them to lose face.... I find the whole thing ridiculous. But we are guests in someone else's house.
In a elevator in Beijing a much smaller and shorter man was smoking in a elevator and I swear blow smoking directly at my head. Telling his friends in Mandarin I would not dare say anything to him. He was correct but I had a coughing fit and my Venti Bold spilled on him.. I apologised in mandarin and offered to pay for his cleaning. I explained my allergy to smoke and how I tried to control my cough. His friends laughed at him and told him to forget it. The girl said you are right he did not need to say anything and laughed at him .
My guess for the second thing he can't stand: people who move to Kunming/China of their own free will and then spend their time griping online about how much Kunming/China annoys them.
At least in Kunming you're not breathing in toxic fumes 24/7. Have you been to East China and looked at the sky? My coworker likes to joke that he might as well filter the air by inhaling through cigarettes.
I fully agree with DanTheMan,
China is no prison, so if you don't like it, go to a better place.
I enjoy living in Kunming, there are many things i like more here than where i came from, and a few things i like less, but that will be the case where ever i go.
For me Kunming is my future
I'm not a moaner by nature. I've lived in Kunming for six happy years and plan to stay indefinitely. But if I was asked to name my two bugbears about the place it would indeed be the public smoking and the spitting. They are simply bad habits, not cultural differences. Brits used to smoke and spit until laws were passed and enforced that made them increasingly unacceptable. Nothing in theory to stop that happening here too. Ever the optimist.
@culture
Maybe first thing is to change your name. It should be "whiner".
You want no smoking?.......Move to California. (actually it sounds like you are from there)
When does Chinese EVER follow rules? Get over it or stop breathing. Your choice.
For g#*damn sake your're either a troll or dumb as a box of rocks whinning over smoking in China.
