Even though we got a birth certificate with both Chinese and English, my embassy still wants it 'verified' because they don't trust any Chinese official papers unless they've been signed by comrade Xi himself (experience I guess, can't say I blame them).
Finding an official who actually knows how this is done has of course been an absolute nightmare but we've ended up with this: First, translate the certificate at an official translator. Then get a public notary to stamp it. Then we have to find the ministry of foreign affairs to stamp it as well. Since I'm assuming this is going to take about a month or longer in this extremely streamlined and efficient country, I feel like asking other expats here who've been through this: Is this the correct way to go around it?
Oh btw. We've spent days calling the offices of that particular ministry in Kunming and still haven't found anyone who knows anything about this. Is it time to be kicking in doors and calling for superiors?
I'm guessing you need a firmware update, although, you're saying it doesn't play your old games either? Worrying, firmware usually allows new cracks to be played, old ones should work fine without. Anway, as far as I know, you can't Xbox Live from China so might as well go with the flow and get it fully chipped/modded so you can play all the 5 yuan copies. Remember to tell the guys that's it's a real Xbox, 99 percent of the boxes here are fakes -but work perfectly well.
Saw some pictures on CCTV Whatever from Kunming. Looked pretty bad. Could only see the roof of some cars. This month we had 10 days of consecutive rain here in western Yunnan and I can't even remember just a few hours of respite during that. Luckily our river seems really good at soaking everything up.
I no longer live in KM but occasionally return to this site for a bit of updating. Yesterday and today I noticed teaching jobs paying as little as 70-80 yuan an hour and after a more thorough look-see it seems like the average salary is around 100-110. How can that be right? When I arrived 5 years ago I got 110 from my school and 200 for private lessons on the side. Considering the inflation in China that in reality is close to 10 percent and the growth of Kunming, schools really ought to be paying at least 150 by now, and probably closer to 200. Are there really that many foreigners in KM these days, that the competition alone can explain this?
Unfortunately you can't always trust the reviews. My wife says that if you go in and rate someone, you often get store credit, like 10-15 yuan but the store of course isn't going along if you tear them down. My wife always goes to rate and I think always picks the highest one, as I suspect many other Chinese do.
3 to 5 years to set up rules, regulations and laws on shale gas extraction?! And here I thought that one of the pros of having a government like China's (cough, cough, haaaark, spit!) was that the decision-making process was speedy when needed.
And yes, we all know TallAm has a point unfortunately. Increased consumption pared with limited fossil fuel reserves make it inevitable that every single extractable deposit will be done with eventually, and as time passes, fewer and fewer environmental concerns will be addressed.
Wonder how they'll cope with the millions of migrant construction workers in a year or two when constructions grinds down to a 10th of what it is now. Seems like President Jin will be juggling several hot potatoes soon. I'll be looking for an apartment next year, so naturally I wouldn't mind a 15-20 percent drop in real estate prices personally, although I doubt it will be that much. The Chinese characteristics of this particular area of economics tell me no one wants to even consider selling with a loss unless the bank is there, knocking at your door, and the Chinese generally have a significantly smaller percentage of the RE value mortgaged than we on average have in the West due to savings and/or family loans before coughing up with the deposit.
Come to think of it, predicting what's going to happen in China it's a bit like putting on a blindfold, aim, and hope the dart ends up somewhere in the general direction of the board.
Went there yesterday and it totally made my week. Nice decor and friendly staff and a real salad bar. Sadly we both wanted mexican food so I can't really say much about their other courses. The food was great but just a tad spicier would have improved the dish. The best thing was that we almost had the place to ourselves and we could have a quiet conversation without shouting, spitting Chinese people in the background. I realised how much I had missed that since coming here.
We went to Chicago Coffee a couple of days ago and it was a nice experience. The place is cozy with soft comfy chairs (I realized how much I have missed one since coming here) and they have a nice little collection of English language books in the corner consisting mainly of classics and travel litterature. I was looking forward to trying their advertized tortilla bar but it wasn't up and running that evening.
Instead we went for 2 12 inch pizzas -roast chicken and pepperoni- but we quickly realized that 1 would have been enough. Those things are heavy. I am mainly into Italian style pizza but Chicago's double layered pizzas are well worth a try. Their coffee seems to be a bit on the expensive side but people say good things about it and they have got a nice selection. I wouldn't mind dropping by again some day,, hopefully when they've got the tortilla thing going. English speaking staff btw.
Farmers protest land grab south of Kunming
Posted by120.000 yuan? That's insanely low for such an area. Are you sure of the numbers?
Beijing green-lights Nu River dam
Posted bySad.
Fracking comes to Southwest China
Posted by3 to 5 years to set up rules, regulations and laws on shale gas extraction?! And here I thought that one of the pros of having a government like China's (cough, cough, haaaark, spit!) was that the decision-making process was speedy when needed.
And yes, we all know TallAm has a point unfortunately. Increased consumption pared with limited fossil fuel reserves make it inevitable that every single extractable deposit will be done with eventually, and as time passes, fewer and fewer environmental concerns will be addressed.
Lugu Lake airport slated for 2013
Posted byCrossing my fingers they never get it finished.
Kunming new home sales plunge
Posted byWonder how they'll cope with the millions of migrant construction workers in a year or two when constructions grinds down to a 10th of what it is now. Seems like President Jin will be juggling several hot potatoes soon. I'll be looking for an apartment next year, so naturally I wouldn't mind a 15-20 percent drop in real estate prices personally, although I doubt it will be that much. The Chinese characteristics of this particular area of economics tell me no one wants to even consider selling with a loss unless the bank is there, knocking at your door, and the Chinese generally have a significantly smaller percentage of the RE value mortgaged than we on average have in the West due to savings and/or family loans before coughing up with the deposit.
Come to think of it, predicting what's going to happen in China it's a bit like putting on a blindfold, aim, and hope the dart ends up somewhere in the general direction of the board.