User profile: voltaire

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Poetry anyone?

Please tell me they sell alcohol! I will come up from Fuxian lake for the occasion. Now to find some inspiration or a good poem to read!

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Poetry anyone?

I'm in. Haven't written anything of late, but super supportive and have some interesting stuff to read, anyway. The arts in China as a whole, but also Kunming (despite its relative virtues in this area) need as much support as possible. I like Moondog, it's a cozy and unassuming venue. Seconding the idea of slightly-earlier-but-not-too-early so hardcore boozers can get their Vitamin-A on afterwards ;)

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Forums > Living in Kunming > The Mountain Bike Thread

Surprised nobody has mentioned my favourite trail.

It's my fav because it's close to town, it has a really nice steep hill, low traffic, and a nice view.

Basically you head north up to Huangtupo, then head directly west.

After a few blocks cycling past large buildings, the road goes a little up an incline, then bends slightly south. You keep going straight here, down the off-shoot that continues directly toward the mountains.

There are two options here for route: you can either go straight, and keep going straight when the road bends right (sudden, not far), climb to the residential area, then make your way through it to the left (southwest) corner, where you can lift your bike on to the trail. The other way is after a hundred or so meters on the left is a little off-shoot road that winds up past a little market and along a stream.

They join up, you go over a rail bridge, under a road bridge, a little further upward and you are on the old road up to Xiongzhusi (Bamboo temple). Now, if you were going up to the temple you'd continue along the road when it crosses the stream-valley, turning left. This is an OK ride but is fraught with traffic. Instead, turn right immediately and head up the road the follows the valley. Keep going and you eventually get up to a cemetery. This is my regular ride, used to be daily (I live in Bangkok at the moment). There's almost never anyone up there, and you get one of the best views of Kunming.

You can also continue up through the cemetery and along trails, which drops you down the western side above a prison. If you are careful you can negotiate the rough descent (note: definite MTB only territory) and then get on to a road. Turn right on the road and you'll climb and descend down another incline slightly to the north, back in the Kunming metropolis. Turn left and .. well I never went that way, but it's probably good if you want a long loop.

If you are lucky and get there fast through the traffic, you can probably get out there, climb the mountain, and cycle back to Wenlinjie for a drinking session in about an hour.

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Xiefei: Of course, we will probably never know the real reasons, but the result is the same. Absolute depoliticization of the site, the movement of anything still suggestive of a pluralistic history out of town to what amounts to the middle of nowhere, and the vaguaries of apologetics resulting from a lack of transparency in government decision making. What next? Personally, I expect to see a coffee shop in former exhibition space.

I believe it's hard to interpret mtDNA evidence without being an expert... there are a lot of Chinese mtDNA studies in the Yungui Plateau area.

Other studies I have read show things like the pre-modern peoples of the Yangtse delta (Shanghai) region came up the coast from Southeast Asia on boats.

Then of course we have the development of long-distance, multihull sailing vessels in the islands (some even attribute this to prehistoric Vietnam), which resulted in undeniable migration of one linguistic group (Austronesians) as far west as Madagascar and as far east as Easter Island and (by a recent article published in the prestigious journal Nature) South America ... all this allegedly from Taiwan.

See en.wikipedia.org/[...] for some background there... "some Amazonian Native Americans descend partly from a Native American founding population that carried ancestry more closely related to indigenous Australians, New Guineans and Andaman Islanders than to any present-day Eurasians or Native Americans."

The main point is, there's evidence of all sorts of things, but a coherent picture is far from agreed upon, and the picture is changing.

Perhaps it would be fair to say that what we really know about ancient Yunnan, other than its extreme diversity and ancient peopling since neolithic times, is that it was a melting pot important in the initial dispersal (by both prehistoric migration and trade) of critical technologies such as intensive rice agriculture across a broad swathe of Asia, and that this importance is not widely known in either academia or public consciousness, despite the geographic/topographic sense this makes, the continued discoveries of ancient settled agricultural sites (Jianchuan), etc.

We are only beginning to learn about our own ignorance! :)

If I recall correctly I read the sign at the entrance to the old museum site on Dongfeng Dong Lu a few months ago, which suggested that the powers that be were in the process of "depoliticizing" the contents of building by turning in to some kind of modern fine art gallery, no doubt with a carefully audited inventory to raise no pesky questions about historical independence and ethnic identity.

I was the friend that dragged Jordan down. It's not a bad museum as far as space goes, but the exhibitions are pretty lame. The lack of translations is grating, as is the wholesale abortion of any attempt at a timeline of Yunnanese history. It's as if the curators were afraid of political backlash for actually laying out history in an honest fashion.

The Nanzhao stuff is pretty detailed, and there is a good selection of bronze age items - far more than the original provincial museum in town.

Overall it's worth a look if you're in to history, but a pain to get to.

One is drawn to question whether the remote location is intended solely to dissuade visitors or was purely a victim of political wranglings.

Good effort by some of the involved, I would say, but an overall poor showing given the investment and background, all said.

Huge areas of interest such as the bronze-age discoveries at Jianchuan, the neolithic paintings in Lincang and the historic connections with Vietnam's northern region are largely ignored. As are any links to Hindu religion in the Nanzhao period (evidenced in carvings at Shibaoshan), the historical seige of Kunming by Tai troops from what is now modern Shan state, Burma, the amazing influence of Zheng He, the history of boats on the central Yunnanese lakes, the 'qi' tiles of Baoshan, and so on...

Overall, poor show.

I wish Yunnan would get a clue about how to market their amazing history and drop the political wankery.

Reviews

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@nailer is being unfairly dismissed: they are certainly fallible. At one point they were well managed and the only game in town, and their outdoor bar had an interesting social vibe. Recently, none of these is the case (was given a bad bill to the tune of ~300% - no managers present and a subsequent complaint resulted in a less than ideal outcome, many more places are now open, and the outdoor bar is closed). Unless you are specifically seeking faux-Americana (often far better examples elsewhere) or two degrees removed faux-Mexicana, there's little reason to go there. How come French Cafe can serve a great sandwich for 24 but Sals requires 50 for a pretend-exoticized nibble? Certainly the business will continue, but the hey-dey is clearly gone. Romaniticizing the past aint gonna help. E-waste recycling by shipping (non carbon neutral) junk across the country? Puh-lease. Garbage processing people here recycle anyway! I applaud the ethical stance of one of the managers, but the place has frankly lost its mojo.

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Hands down the best draft craft beer in Kunming. On top of that, very reasonable prices for food and other drinks (especially wine).

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Called the number provided on a Friday at 2:15PM while a 10% discount was advertised "on Friday and Saturday" (listed in GoKunming specials).

A Chinese person answered the 'English' phone number in Mandarin then explained in broken English that you need to order 3 hours in advance. (Subtext: As their business is so slow)

Grumble. False advertising. Waste of time. Seems 100% Chinese run. Probably bad pizza.

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The listing here is wrong! Teresa's are not defunct, they are just back to being one store instead of two stores on Wenlinjie now! They are still in business, still answer on this phone number, and are still delivering! Points for consistency, it's been years! As of right now, it's 68 for the more toppings vegetarian at the largest size. They will do thin or thick crust. Yes, it's not to everyone's taste, but I always used to find adding dried chilli powder and some extra salt brought it up to tasty. Might go for a dash of Sichuan pepper oil to spice it up this time around. (You know you've been in China too long when...)

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I also had a bad experience here recently.

Honestly, I wish them the best of luck, but I do think the staff are poorly managed and the owners have the wrong attitude and a clear lack of experience in service-oriented business. While the pizza is OK, everything else I have tried (including overnight stay) can be had cheaper and better elsewhere, and the pizza at Roccos is better in my opinion. The service has always fluctuated between acceptable to don't care.

Since they don't have their situation resolved yet, and it has been a few years, I have made the decision not to go there anymore or send anyone else. It's just not worth the hassle, given the crappy location (masked as private or lost). Better pizza with more quiet and privacy on Roccos' terraces.