User profile: bluppfisk

User info
  • Registered
  • VerifiedYes

Forum posts

0
Forums > Travel Yunnan > Vietnamese visa at Hekou

Is it still possible for foreigners to obtain a Vietnamese visa at Hekou? What's the price, what's the duration and what's the delivery time?

Cheers!

0
Forums > Living in Kunming > receive money in a chinese bank account

Hi

I'm looking for a way to wire money from EU/US countries into a Chinese bank account. Also, is it possible to wire money back to them?

Which banks can I use, what will it cost, what's the typical processing time, how do I get my IBAN/BIC number (if such a thing applies) etc.?

0
Forums > Living in Kunming > Army surplus store

Beijing lu's east side, north of Yuantong daqiao and south of the north train station, is lined with the things. You can even get a nice army surplus garden chair.

0
Forums > Living in Kunming > How much do interpreters make?

I am a professional translator and charge €35 per hour when I work for agencies and €50 when directly for the client. That makes €400 on a standard working day. Obviously, an interpreter (who will have to move, arrange his time schedule ...) will make more money. A simultaneous interpreter making $800 a day sounds about right.

You may think this is an awful lot of money for a totally free job. But do not forget that most of us are freelance, pay up to 50% tax on income, do not get full-time equivalent work, have to buy our own insurance, and may take years to build up a translation business that generates enough money to make a living off.

Classifieds

No results found.

Comments

I'm not as pessimistic as Yuanyangren. I know a fair amount of South-East-Asian students here in Kunming who, besides their own language and pretty good English, also speak Chinese and another South-East-Asian language.

When in Vietnam I heard a fair deal of Chinese, Lao and Cambodian. In eastern Thailand and southern Laos, a fair number of people could speak Vietnamese. People in eastern Burma were often also fluent in Thai as they often (illegally) cross the border to work in Thailand.

There are different reasons for this. First, culturally: except for Chinese, no language or nation is so much bigger than the other that it is not necessary for them to learn their neighbour's language (i.e. you don't have the France or Germany effect). Plus the fact that each country has a lot of immigrants and trade from neighbouring countries.

Linguistically: all of those languages are linguistically closer to each other than each of them is to English (tones, structure over flection, sounds ...), which makes it much easier for the speaker of one SEA language to learn the other. Also, you can pretty much consider Lao and Thai as one language.

Finally, you don't really need to know each language. One will do. Being a linguist myself, I know that knowing a fourth or a fifth language doesn't help. No company ever seeks polyglots. Most would rather employ two persons with different language skills.

That said, I indeed know very few Chinese who master any of those languages. They suffer from the France syndrome where their language is so overwhelmingly big that they do not need to know any others. This could prove a great opportunity for South-East-Asians who do master more than one language, in addition to Chinese.

I think its main attraction is the Europeans exhibit. Isolated and outside their own habitat, they seem a bit unhappy yet continue to do their thing: dining, drinking, complaining about prices, complaining about the heat, complaining about the surroundings, unsuccessfully trying to haggle, taking pictures of everything that moves or -in fact- does not move (the latter probably a result of their isolation), walking around, perusing night marked trinkets and looking for unique experiences.

Best zoo ever.

Well if it is because of political achievement, then the urge to achieve political achievement has put into place good works. Ergo: whoever holds the strings of these political achievers has found a way to incentivise officials to think what could make a city better before it's actually needed. The goal justifies the means. Okay, it should also be re-evaluated to eliminate quality erosion.

The Pan Asia Gold Exchange, when launched, could have a major impact on the global gold market, other than just reinforcing Kunming and China as financial forces to be reckoned with. See, if as Mr. Maguire suggests, indeed 1000 tonnes of gold will be sold to Chinese people, this will make the price of gold skyrocket. It also means that people who short gold (i.e. they borrow gold from someone who has some, sell it for 100 dollar an ounce, anticipate a price drop and buy it back for 90 dollar an ounce). Net profit: 10 per ounce. These shorts make the market unstable and undermine the position of gold as a money reserve in bad financial times (like, now).

Other things come into play: the increased opening of the RMB to foreign investment (since foreigners will be able to sell gold to Chinese people in return for yuan!) and the fact that there will be a shift in financial power, away from the LBMA (London Bullion Market Association) and the COMEX in New York. This would bring balance and free market workings to the bullion market.

There may be many other things that could ensue from the launch of PAGE. It's hard to oversee the changes that may be brought about and the bigger financial and political picture. However, if it launches the way analysts think it will, now may be a good time to buy gold.

ah blobbles, your blog was a guide for me through that part of the 3201 towards Nansha. I was happy though to find the roadworks all but completely finished.

Nice post!

I quite liked Nansha though dubbed by my guidebook (which I consequently dumped) "a big uninteresting hamlet with lots of concrete and tiles". I had the best of help there from a local grocer without whom I would've run into considerable trouble. I later lost my phone and therefore contact with him, so I with a few consecutive days to spare, I would like to ride back south (and further down) and say hi - and at the same time spend some days in a place that is a little more wennuan than Kunming these days.

Write-up:

www.crazyguyonabike.com/[...]

Reviews


By

On my cycling tour through Yunnan into South-East-Asia, I've stopped regularly at Mei Mei for a bit and a lot of drinks.

The service is friendly, the location is great and the prices are reasonable. I'm over the moon about their brownies (served with ice cream) and coffee. Though I've not had everything on the menu, I was pretty impressed with the dishes I ordered.

Don't bother with Mekong café. Mei Mei is as good a place to rest, at night or in the afternoon and has the better food.


By

This was my first stop in Jinghong when I was cycling down south. I was hungry and in need of calories, so I ordered up the biggest burger on the menu: the imperial with added cheese.

I was sorely disappointed to see the sad pile of gooey beef and bread arrive, covered in half-melted cheese and not much bigger than two McDonald's cheeseburgers stacked on top of each other.

The best thing about this place are tourist informations, for everything else I suggest Meimei nextdoor or Wangtianshu a bit further in town.


By

Good noodles (well perhaps most Chinese places can pull off a Chinese dish properly). Excellent selection of beer, including my favourite Orval. Beer is chilled to the right temperature indicated on the label. Friendly and good-smiling staff. Fair-priced. Terrace in the sun.

Only complaint? Not enough matching glasses to serve those delicious beers in. See, if that's the only complaint, it's a 5-star review!

Why can't other places be as good?


By

If I go back, it won't be for the lazy service or the bland spaghetti bolognese. The cosiness and selection of beers could and the game aspect will be the only reasons to go back. Really some places should just try ro be what they are: cafés, not restaurants.


By

Though happy with the friendly service, I'm not too impressed with the food quality vs. price ratio. Also, the vietnamese coffee comes without condenses milk as it would be served in Vietnam or next door, in vintage.