User profile: voltaire

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Full Lunar Eclipse this Saturday, Dec. 10

Hi all, thought you might be interested in this.

The last full lunar eclipse to occur until 2014 is on THIS SATURDAY, the 10th of December.

The eclipse will not be fully visible to much of the world, but lucky Yunnan residents get to see the whole thing! (Check out shadowandsubstance.com/20111210ecl/USA12102011a.png for a world map).

Having seen a similar event earlier this year in India, I can recommend making the effort to get out and see it.

The local timings for viewing the event in Kunming, courtesy of NASA at eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/JLEX/JLEX-AS.html, are as follows.

The initial penumbral (partial / 'shadow cast by the edge of the earth's atmosphere') eclipse begins at 19:34.

The partial umbral (actual hard shadow from the earth) eclipse begins at 20:46.

The total eclipse begins at 22:06. As this begins, be on the look out for special colours on the moon. Once it sets in, the moon will apparently be coloured with a reddish or orange hue of unknown nature, due to unpredictable atmospheric conditions at the time. Mid-eclipse will occur almost half an hour later at 22:32. The total eclipse will end at 22:57. The partial eclipse will end at 00:18 and the penumbral eclipse will end at 01:30AM on Sunday, December 11.

It might be worth getting a little out of town to see this. I'm thinking of going to see from the cemetery parking lot on Yu'an Shan, accessible by a small road leading off the main one up to Bamboo Temple. To get there, head directly west from Xuefu Lu / Huangtupo.

If someone has a car I'd appreciate a lift!

Enjoy,
Walter

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Forums > Food & Drink > Healthy options - identity crisis.

Hi Tigertiger.

I run www.vegetarian-china.info/ ... there's some dishes there you might like to take a look at. Going vegan or at least vegetarian would definitely help you.

In terms of eating decent low-fat western food outside, I would recommend:

- Small veggie pesto salad at Salvadors (very filling)

- Salads at Prague Cafe (though a little pricey)

Unfortunately much western food is simply bad for you in terms of cholesterol. Quiche, pizzas, hamburgers, heavy chunks of meat, etc. Lots of Chinese food you buy outside is also very oily, though. You can reduce the amount of oil you are eating by choosing good restaurants, ordering carefully and eating less.

Try going to a good Chinese restaurant (I recommend Kadilan, opposite Mandarin books) and ordering some vegetables you've never eaten before. The white root plant 'zi er gen', cucumber, mushrooms, tofu and tomato, various leafy greens, broccoli, etc. are all tasty and much better for heart conditions than meat dishes.

Also, drinking a glass of red wine every night is supposed to help reduce the incidence of heart problems.

Stay away from any regular consumption of sugary foods. One of the worst is beer, but also fizzy drinks like sodas. Move from beer to wine: feel better, drink less.

If you are smoking, stop. When I've succeeded in stopping for weeks or months in the past a combination of exercise and locking myself at home with DVDs or a computer game or some good books has been a good method. Also, travel in a low-pressure environment (Thailand, etc.) can be a good way to keep the mind off the habit.

Consider getting in to cooking a lot more ... the veggie markets in Yunnan are some of the best in the world and you can really eat well here. Ultimately, eating at home gives you the most control over what you will consume and in what quantity.

Get more fruit around the house, and snack on that and eg: cashew nuts instead of having full meals. Don't overdo the cashews though: in theory they're pretty high fat but in practice you can munch away pretty happily as long as you don't do a bowl a day!

Eat less in the evening, and more in the morning or at lunch time.

Exercise wise, maybe get yourself a bicycle and take a day a week to visit one of Kunming's nearby mountains. Also consider playing some badminton (very full body game: less energetic / high body impact than squash, very approachable for people out of shape).

Good luck and thanks for the shock treatment. I'm overweight too after a too much of the good life and not enough exercise but am working on it with some serious cycling and careful food selection right now. Hoping to avoid a similar situation in 20 years' time!

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Dali-Lincang-Lancang-Jinghong anybody?

I would recommend going south from Dali via Midu, Jingdong and Jinggu, then heading west across to Lincang. This area has far more traditional Dai temples than you can find in Xishuangbanna owing to the Xishuangbanna Dai's propensity to knock the old ones down and build glammed-out concrete replacements the second some rubber-plantation money drips in. That said, there are still plenty of interesting places in Xishuangbanna, just most of them are nothing to do with the Dai but instead other 'minority' groups.

Three of us (Taiwanese 18, Australian 27, Australian 29) are planning to cycle that route at least as far as Jinggu, with an open schedule, at the beginning of October. The pace will be pretty slow, I'd say. If you're interested in coming then feel free to get in touch: 18669080480

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Amusing T-Shirt phrases

Man made <something or other I later determined to be an English radio station>, God made Grass, who do you trust? [With a huge marijuana leaf] - about 2005, eastern Shandong.

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We delayed a week due to bad weather and went down last weekend, though it took us all day to get there.

We found the village named in the linked Chinese article - Shati (沙提) - and indeed there are lots of boats there, but they are all made of metal, not of wood. Currently because it is the end of the season they are all hauled up on land being re-coated. There is quite a lot of pollution as the village burns off its rubbish right next to the lake... even though they fish from it. Some government garbage collection effort is necessary!

Anyway, it should be possible to get a half-day on one of the boats when the season re-opens, according to the locals it runs from about April/May through October.

Nearby villages also have boats, it's not exclusively that one place, but that's where a fairly large fleet of fishing boats is based (upwards of 25 of them).

The easiest way to get there is to get a bus from near Haigeng Gongyuan in the Dianchi Road area of southwest Kunming for 4元. The bus simply goes straight down Huanhu Lu (环湖路), and the very last stop is close to Shati, either you can walk there down the main road (about 15 min) or you can get a cab or local bus from there.

Unfortunately, much of the nearby area to the northeast along the coast has been destroyed and is completely overdeveloped with stupid empty 'resorts', golf courses and ridiculous housing developments. There is an exception though. We also found a natural area a little beforehand, where the severe cliff topography has prevented over-development and there are still some beautiful little villages with some lovely old traditional houses still standing. The locals said that in March or April, when the water is lower, it is possible to walk across the lake and around the cliff. Could be a nice trip!

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Alien, the immediate north around this period was the Shu Kingdom of Sichuan.

The Shu were very talented bronzeworkers.

However, the site of the discovery is very close to Tonghai (通海), which although probably a far later toponym, literally means "connection to the oceans", and probably refers to the area's ancient role as a critical stop on trade routes connecting central Yunnan's lake-plateaux with what is now northern Vietnam via the Red River. In a sense, once you had arrived at Tonghai, you had arrived at the "oceans" (large lakes). Similarly, if you left Tonghai southward bound for the Red River, you were heading toward the ocean proper.

Note also that the Dongson bronze drum culture of northern Vietnam is very significant in the region. It spread its influence and artifacts to Yunnan as well as Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Therefore I would hazard a guess based purely upon geography and timing that the early evidence of bronzeworking discovered in Tonghai was likely due to technological and cultural influences from northern Vietnam rather than Sichuan's Shu Kingdom.

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元 but Sals requires 50元 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元 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.