User profile: atwillden

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Behavior while abroad....

I do disagree somewhat about the article (not the comments) being racist. Many of the previous threads on GoKunming have comments that emphasize that as guests in this country, our behavior is often a litmus test for how Chinese citizens perceive our home countries (not that I necessarily agree with that—just reporting my take on the other comments). If that is the case and we, as guests, need to behave accordingly, turn-about is fair play. In the case of Canada, there are many relatively new immigrants from China (especially in Richmond—last time I was there, I remember seeing more English signs in Kunming!) and their behavior does shape how many Canadians understand and try to deal with bringing these people into their country. Considering that in China we are all 'guests' no matter how long we have been here, but in Canada immigrants can be equal citizens who will become an integral part of the community, I think it's only fair to have concerns about peoples' behavior and their willingness to acclimate to the norms of the country they are becoming part of.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Getting a Mac fixed?

Not to be contradictory (as I would love an authorized dealer/repair shop), my advice was based off of discussing the issue with Apple Canada / Futureshop. At that time they reported no one was authorized in Southern China on that particular warranty outside of Shenzen, but it could have been that a) the service center had no idea what they were talking about; b) the warranty issues only applied to Canada; or c) at that moment no one had authorization. Anyways, best of luck—I'd generally call though anytime warranty on pricey tech is concerned.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Getting a Mac fixed?

So, when my girlfriends Mac (bought in Canada) broke in Guangzhou we called Apple and apparently the warranty is 100% voided if not repaired at an authorized apple service center or an official apple store (i.e., none of the ones in Kunming). The closest place they referred us to was the official flagship store in Shenzen or Hong Kong, as we had not bought the laptop in mainland China. Maybe the US license offers different options, but you'd have to call Apple and see.

One note about some repair shops in KM, in addition to voiding the warranty, there is also the occasional problem of the repair shop swapping some of your nice parts and putting in factory rejects. Best of luck, hopefully it's more convenient than having to travel.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Business Cards

Lots of the small printing shops around town can do it, though they generally prefer working with PDFs. PPT and .jpeg/.gif files usually end up with distortion to the fonts. Likewise PDF is a fairly universal file format, as you can create the cards in many of the adobe CS suite applications or even MS Office but open them in a pdf reading program.

When trying to find the shops, look for the ones that display things like passport sized photos or similar in the windows. I could give you specific recommendations if I knew what part of town you are in, but in general you can find these anywhere.

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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.

Reviews

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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.