Hello, I am from North America and need information on living in Kunming. Anything can help! I am just now beginning to learn about Kunming and I do not know much. Typical foods or drinks in diet, clothing, major religious beliefs, average level of education, typical living arrangements...anything along these lines can help. Answers appreciated, thank you!

Rice, tea, 'western'-style clothes (no temperature extremes), few serious religious beliefs but numerous minor ones ('superstitions'), Islam Buddhism Christianity Taoism all practiced by some to varying degrees, average level of education probably 1bout 10 years, living arrangements in towns & cities mostly in privately rented or owned apartments...not quite sure what you might want to know.

@ Alien - this helped a ton, thank you very much! Do you mind answering: How did the stabbings in March affect Kunming people? I am doing a research project for school and I am not sure of any of these answers, so I figured it would be best to get them firsthand!

If you are looking for firsthand, then this is definitely NOT the place to get your information.

@jordan11
Please provide a short bio on yourself, the purpose of your research, and the intended audience for your publication.

Exactly (like laotou already says.)

Looks a bit too much like a social experiment now.

@Jordan11 Hiya! If u have a look thru the classifieds and forums u will find tons of info about stuff like the cost of living and average rents and wages etc. Wikipedia will also give u a nice overview.

all the best

loads of this stuff as govt statistics on websites. maybe not reliable but more reliabe than anecdotes from people who are from outside og the culture. loads of research already done by us and eu researchers. at least one person done PHD on this stuff. all should be searchable on academic libraries.

@jordan11: Can't help that much concerning the stabbings. I am not Chinese. I was out of town when the stabbings happened - got back about 10 days later. My impression is that people were of course horrified, but, at least by the time I got back, nobody seemed to be freaking out. Things are basically cool now, although there have been a few more cops on the streets, the idea being, for the most part, to give people a sense of security, I think - the cops are not all nervous all the time. There were some raids on suspects etc., I think, but as I said I was out of town. I have heard some people expressing negative stereotypes of Uighurs, but not about Muslims in general (most Muslims in Yunnan are Hui-nationality (Chinese-mother tongue) people, and I have not noticed any reaction against them. Near where I live there are numerous Hui restaurants, and they seem to be doing business as usual.

Two visible changes after the incident. Firstly, the shao cao sellers on Haigeng Daba no longer appear to be Muslim. Secondly, even the Mall Cops are wearing stab vests now and hard hats, as are local security in residential developments.