User profile: Natsymir

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Forums > Food & Drink > Do you like writing about food?

I already have my own blog about food in Kunming, here: kunmingsshabbiest.blog.se

but I'd be very happy if you would link to it, and I would return the favor, of course, by posting a link to your blog.

And; at some point before I leave Kunming, I do wanna write about the tibetan restaurant Makye Ame, which is not exactly suited for my blog...though my blog is so random that anything goes, really, maybe I could do it on yours. I really can't plan ahead regarding what I'll write or not write, but I'll follow your blog, and if you give me your email, and I do come up with something, we could then see if it's something you'd wanna publish?

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Lugu Lake?

HFCAMPO: I was there a few weeks ago, the 'standard' road from Lijiang is in good condition I'd say (at least compared to every single road I ever took in Qinghai and western Sichuan), but it was raining and we encountered several brutal accidents along the way. For our return to Lijiang, however, we chose the obscure northern road from Yongning. This road was at the very least two times as long, including an expensive (100 yuan) ferry passage across the Jinsha Jiang because the bridge was not finished, but it was also perhaps the most gorgeous scenery I have ever seen, beating out Tiger Leaping Gorge, the Nujiang Valley, Tibetan Sichuan and even the chinese part of the Karakoram Highway. If you have a car and don't mind a very very long drive, it's an absolute must see, mind-blowing mountain scenery, but try to leave from Yongning early, as you'll get to go the backdoor route through the Jade Dragon Snow Mountain nature reserve in order to get to Lijiang, and when we got that far it was so late that it had already become dark, and we couldn't see anything. This road is, except the lack of a bridge across Jinsha Jiang, also in rather good condition, it's just extremely long, snaking through a ton of mountains.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Studying Chinese in Kunming, feedback please

If you aren't like, obsessed with overpriced western food and beer, around the same monthly budget as you had in Yangshuo should be fine in Kunming. 1500-2000 would give you a room in a REALLY fancy apartment, but it you wanna live on your own, you might have to move out from the city center a bit for that price. Personally, I'd say there's absolutely no reason to pay more than 800 for a room in Kunming.

The night life is okay, there's a vibrant local music scene, with some interesting chinese bands, but there's not many very laowai:y places, so if you like those, expect to see the same people a lot.

Kunming's traffic congestion is very bad, but the bus coverage excellent and extremely cheap; if you're prepared to spend some time in transit, buses'll do. Bicycles and scooters are both viable options too, but slightly more lethal, and scooter theft is a frequently discussed problem here on GoKunming. The mountains around Kunming offer interesting bicycling possibilities, if that's your thing.

The air is okay, I'd say, but I'm not too sensitive about that. The local dialect is okay, but not proper mandarin by any stretch, you'd better go to Harbin (yes, 真的) for that.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Cycling Nujiang river... still doable?

The most beautiful part is the ultimate northern one, beyond Bingzhongluo. Here, across the river and rather inacessible by bike, is the indescribably scenic village of Wuli, that you reach via a path carved out in the steep cliffside along the riverbed. From Wuli, a small trail leds into a deep, misty valley, again with paths in the cliffside, and absolutely otherworldly jungle. Follow this path long enough (several hours, you'll be able to judge by the litter that you're on the right track), and you'll reach the extremely secluded village of Yaotou, high up a mountainside. Again, this won't be accessible by bike unless you're like a magical world class athlete + suicidal, but I wanted to mention it anyhow because it's one of the most awesome places I've ever seen.

Anyhow, sorry for digressing; you'd definitely wanna take your bike all the way up beyond Bingzhongluo, as it's extremely beautiful there. Bingzhounglou itself has an extremely good and cheap restaurant in a basement along the main throughfare.

I'd take the bus to Fugong, which is the farthest you can get into the valley directly from Kunming, seeing as I'd wanna go as far north as possible in the valley on my bike.

Camping is possible, of course, if police or somebody objects just play the stupid laowai card. But I personally wouldn't bother as accomodation is super cheap in China if you have no standards + a minimum of language skill (though being two people so you can share a shabby double is by far the cheapest), and even in some obscure outback villages in Nujiang valley, there are guesthouses. Talk to chinese hikers you meet along the way, they often have some kind of maps and valuable area knowledge.

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Up the mountain from Baoxing temple, there are a couple of dusty, eerie and seemlingy abandoned temples that might be worthwile if you fancy climbing the steep stairs and aren't afraid of the monkeys that will harass you on the way. On the mountaintop is a temple I think was called Jiding si, which was mysteriously open when I got there, but without a soul to be seen. It's old, empty and not very interesting, but if you love temples like I do it's worth it because of the odd and ghostly mood.

We saw most of the area in a day without car or guide. Me and my sister joined some chinese hikers, set off by foot from Shaxi and trough a beautiful and peaceful dry valley with ancient rock carvings that eventually led to Shizhong temple. After this we walked along the concrete road to Baoxing temple, and then up the mountain to the abandoned ones. After that it was getting late and we were very hungry, not having had lunch, so we quickly walked down and continuted along the main road; here I assume we passed Haiyun temple but probably missed it because it was past closing time then. We got out trough the main gate and, finding ourselves much farther from Shaxi than we would have been at Shizhong temple, flagged down a passing bus to get back.

I've tried this recipe now, and I can definitely vouch for it. The taste was very savory and nice; I used the fish mint but not the sawtooth herb. However, it wasn't nearly as ultra-über-mega-spicy as I'm used to from the Dai restaurants in Kunming, and I'll have to experiment a bit so I can achieve that.

Hoping on a plane costs a lot of money and trouble, that's not something all of us can or want to afford. That being said, you have a point of course, most people don't leave Kunming that often, but even Kunming itself benefits from being in Yunnan, seeing as it has great weather and very nice surroundings; you can easily get a little bit of nature without even having to travel to another city, just get out in the mountains. In terms of amazing 'getting away'-opportunities, even if just for a day, Kunming has every other major chinese city beaten hands down, perhaps except Xining, Ürümqi and Lanzhou, and it seems to me few laowai wants to live in those three anyhow. For me, coming from a european city with extremely boring natural surroundings, this is a very big issue, as living in Kunming completely re-ignited a passion for the outdoors that I can never pursue in my hometown. (And then, sure, say Dali would be even better in this regard, but we're talking about major chinese cities only here).

I personally also think Kunming has a very nice cuisine, as I really enjoy yunnanese food, but I know the 'food in Kunming'-question is a sensitive issue on this site, so I'm not gonna push that one.

There is of course a MAJOR advantage of choosing Kunming over any eastern cities, and this advantage will remain no matter how polluted, congested, backwoods or whatever you might consider Kunming: Kunming is in -Yunnan-.

Reviews

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The temple itself is interesting, but small; the surrounding exhibitions range from pointless and boring to rather fascinating, but you really need to know chinese or have somebody translating for you to get anything out of it. If you only have limited time in Kunming, skip it and head for the Bamboo Temple instead. Otherwise it's worth a visit.

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The place itself is somewhat interesting, the hike there through the mountains is very nice and the views absolutely stunning.

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Though overpriced, the bread is good and the pizza not bad (though a bit small). However, this place score tons of points for the great and cozy atmosphere, it's absolutely worth repated visits.

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The temple itself is not very interesting, but the grounds are beautiful and the adjoining park (Admission fee: 5 yuan) makes for a pleasant stroll or picknick in a quaint and somewhat forgotten corner of Kunming. I don't know if people are ever allowed into the pagoda;if so, it would make for a grand view of the city, and be worth one extra star. Definitely worth a visit. Note that the temple compund and the park is connected via an underpass just behind the park's west gate.

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It's a pleasant little temple, but the local temple staff wants nothing but your money, and will try their best to get it through various semi-scams.