User profile: atwillden

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Wordprezz CMS Alternatives

WP in China is a bit hit and miss. You might want to try out Drupal instead. It has a higher learning curve than WP, but it operates very well in China as many Chinese firms/entities use it. If you want a quick demo for getting a Drupal site running, try spinning one up on Pantheon.org and seeing if it loads in China. The trick for getting it (or any other CMS) to run in China is to make sure the site installation is not dependent on google services or similar. Lots of WP and Drupal themes use Google Fonts, this causes the sites to not load in China. I've spun up and ran about 10 Drupal sites in China with no problem loading. Feel free to PM me if you need some help.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Installing a water heater

@Yankee— what kind of instant? We have an electric one but its terrible. Water slows down to a trickle (literally) and even then it gets to ~45 degrees on a good day. If we turn it up higher, it blows the fuse for all the lights in the apartment.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Life in Kunming

@blobbles, Rates of diabetes and deaths related to diabetes are different, as are the percentages in different groups. In western countries the rate for those over 65 is ~25%, making it a bit riskier. Chinese in mainland China also develop diabetes without gaining as much weight (compared to say Europeans) meaning that they may also not be susceptible to some of the other problems that accompany having both obesity and diabetes. Hence, it may not be as "serious" in the PRC (yet) as it is elsewhere.

@Mag, I'm getting it from the research I read/work on. Lots of stuff out there.

@Dai, SLC, UT = Salt Lake City, UT—a place that for some reason MM has on occasion referred to rather disparagingly. Just wanted to clarify that SLC is actually a nice place, great diversity of food, culture, and with a beautiful environment.

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Forums > Food & Drink > Gongbao Jiding

yankee—what was in the original ingredients? There was a pretty awesome place on Xuefulu, and one near the south train station that both seemed pretty authentic when I tried them.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Life in Kunming

Mag,

At the moment, obesity related health problems are much lower in China than in say Europe or North America (diabetes, heart disease) but lung diseases among smokers and non-smokers are much higher in China, as are certain cancers that may be associated with pollution in the food or water, like colorectal cancer. Other mental illnesses are also more common in China than elsewhere, and may potentially be connected to pollution or just overall density in some of the major cities. Those are just a few examples. Generally, many Chinese are healthier than their western counterparts because they are forced to walk way more and their diets are more balanced (even if unpalatable at times for some). That said, life expectancy in general is lower for China, partially because of certain illnesses connected with pollution and living without developed medical care for particular problems that often crop up later in life.

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It equally seems inappropriate that in a country where people struggle to get adequate nutrition that by you have people driving jaguars & BMWs and innumerable Gucci/Prada/Louis Vuitton boutiques...not to mention the obsessions with smartphones.... c'est la vie I suppose.

So, after a few weeks of trying to get over the shock of the site looking so different, I have to say I still am loathe to come onto GoKunming with the new look. Don't get me wrong, there are great improvements and the site design has some pluses... however, it is not a site design that works with large multicolored advertisements running everywhere. The dark background of the older site made these seem less garish, but the new light color gradually just means that all I see is the ads.

As a second (related) note, this site does look nice on touch devices, but the lack of framing (like the old site had) can make going through the forums or classifieds an irritating experience.

best of luck in the growing pains.

jojio,

yes, the observatory is part of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and is open for educational visits to the public. They have a great observation tower with a sun telescope you can view (which is 7 flights of stairs up an old Maoist era tower—very cool), as well as an older but still cool IMAX dome-style theater where you watch some films about movement of the stars in Yunnan (all in Chinese). There aren't any foreign staff, so the tour would be entirely in thick Kungminghau. There is also a great hole in the wall museum with old astronomical instruments, some meteor fragments and a few exhibits on Chinese astronomy.

When I was there 2 months ago, the old road the connects the observatory to the city had been torn out and we had to drive on muddy clay. It's also pretty far out (near the airportish), and the facility is OLD. Most of the scientists/their families/support staff are really friendly, and most had never seen a foreign visitor before.

If you have enough people who are interested, we could get a minibus and arrange a tour via their sister Zoological institute on Jiaochang Donglu.

I wouldnt exactly call all non-Euro/American principles of land ownership fair and equitable either. Many cultures have cut up the land they lived on and turned oases into deserts—definitely not a new "western" phenomenon. That said, in general the issue of the moon has been settled in principle by international conventions, but enforcement wasn't really included because no one has yet figured out how to extract resources from space and get them back to earth at a reasonable cost. Out of sheer curiosity though, what would be terrible about a country/company owning an asteroid and mining it? Don't get me wrong, seeing the coca-cola logo on the moon wouldn't be fun, but we are not nearly into that realm yet.

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Slight unrated update here... I was in again and spoke to Sandra's partner, and he agreed there could be a greater selection of items (especially meat/cheese-wise) so he mentioned that several new products would be coming out shortly. So, not to say that dudeson's review was inaccurate (given his description, it's an entirely fair assessment from his experience), but mostly just to report that there should be some things worth going back to try.