User profile: voltaire

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Forums > Living in Kunming > tea market with Indian tea?

In Chinese western-style teas are known as 红茶 (hongcha) or "red tea", though in English the same category of teas are known as "black tea". Indeed, this type is grown right here in Yunnan and should not be any worse than the Sri Lankan or Nilgiri teas. In fact, those are almost certainly blended between multiple estates, whereas Chinese tea producers may not take that approach. Anyway check out en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_tea#Varieties for some ideas of what to ask for more specifically than 'hongcha'. Probably Xiefei can weigh in here, he knows a lot about tea and used to work in the industry.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > "Border run" at Mohan/Boten crossing

At last check you can get a cargo boat from Guanlei (southwest of Menglun), you don't have to backtrack all the way to Jinghong for the tourist boat. It's never been something a lot of people do, but it was possible. Great trip, too. If you get a boat middayish, it's an overnight trip, very memorable. Excellent jungle, occasional villages, lots of butterflies, lovely scenery.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Anyone grow orchids?

I can believe that. Apparently it's common here to feed them hormones and fertilizer to make them grow faster and/or bud/flower. Searching online it seems the American growers are in to this as well. Chemicals: for when nature's not good enough!

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Anyone grow orchids?

I brought quite a few orchids (apparently two different species) back from Wenshan last week. After repotting/grafting them on to logs yesterday, I'm wondering if anyone else here keeps them successfully and may be interested to trade species or info. It looks like you can buy cheap ones on Taobao for as little as 8 but they are not endemic to Yunnan. I remember years ago I saw a little store with orchid-growing books in the old Bird and Flower Market, actually bought one but it's in storage on another continent and I'm sure the shop is long gone.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > "Border run" at Mohan/Boten crossing

Laos officials at other Laos borders will usually be quite relaxed or, if necessary, take money to overlook problems if you know how to present cash without incriminating them. Therefore, I would not worry about Laos... if you get unlucky you can still solve the problem. However, I would worry about China. You are best to get a new passport ASAP.

You can stay on either side of the border, but not in-between.

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"Cavemen were found near Jianshui" .. actually the location was more like "the lower Yunnense Red River" .. south of the river .. closer to Dienbienphu in Vietnam.

This is mostly interesting as because Baoshan is the southwesternmost major Han outpost referenced in early Chinese historical literature.

Unlike Sichuan, whose great plain was fairly definitively under Han dominance some 1000 years earlier, Yunnan's real Sinification really only began under the Yuan dynasty (1271 or so onwards... though a few decades later would see the beginnings of real change in Yunnan). Despite early references to Han parties reaching Kunming and other parts of Yunnan, evidence of serious Han cultural impact on Yunnan remains limited before that period. And this is *500-600 years* before that period.

For those interested in history, I'd highly recommend reading the Chinese accounts of the Yi people of the Sichuan/Yunnan borderland (still dominating most of far-southern Sichuan, ie. pretty much everything south of the plain), including how their queen wisely facilitated the passage of the Mongols in to Yunnan by brokering introductions to neighbouring ethnic groups to avoid a bloody war. While the Han have erected a "Museum to the Living Fossil of the Yi Slave Society" (or something equally condescending and dismissive) in that part of Sichuan, a quick trip around reveals just how important they must have been in the past.

The Ailao people would have been a known neighbour of the Yi to the west (via the Dali and Lijiang plains), as would have been the Naxi of Lijiang, the nearby Mosuo and the Tibetans to their northwest. Tai peoples migrated ever-south from southern Sichuan onward to the tropics.

This compounds archaeological interest in Yunnan, which this year saw the discovery of the Red Deer Cave People just south of the Red River that drains Yunnan's southeast (from about Dali, down to Hanoi and Haiphong in Vietnam), and the earliest Yunnanese stilted house ruins were recently discovered at Jianchuan (on the old Lijiang-Zhongdian road, just south of the big bend in the Yangtse river southwest of Tiger Leaping Gorge), and are also a major recent archaeological find.

Yunnan, along with neighbouring Myanmar (whose internal issues have caused problems with archaeological research in post-colonial times), probably form one of the most exciting archaeological zones in Asia for the coming decades. We live in interesting times!

I second Cangyuan and Mengding.

Cangyuan has loads of neolithic paintings nearby, some traditional Wa villages, and a huge cave.

Mengding has the only maintained ming-era administrator's home I'm aware of in all of Yunnan, and it has been turned in to a great little museum.

Interesting. In Bali right now, just checked that out, couldn't find a fare that cheap from KL to KM over the next couple of months. Maybe expired or sold out already or just a very short-range of dates. Anyway, good to know there's flights.

I know an absolutely exceptional and cheap hostel in KL... folks interested can email for details.

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.