Illustrating my point. "William" is the English/American spelling of the Dutch name "Willem." Which is why "William of Orange" is actually "Willem van Oranje" in Dutch.

There is no need to be snippy— but before you make fun of someone's spelling, you should do your own research. It is as simple as googling.

I think TICexpats is an American, and thinks you are misspelling "William." Sigh.

I'm surprised that no one has brought this up, but how Kunming reacts to your dog depends a lot on the size and breed of your dog. I live near Green Lake and have a Belgian Mallanois, which is about 25 kg and looks like a small German Shepard. He is a service dog and extremely well behaved, which is why I was totally unprepared for how people react to him. Women literally have SCREAMED and jumped out of the way when I walk him (scares the crap out of the poor dog). I've seen people get ready to hit him, just "in case" he did something.

But if you have a little, tiny dog or a big, fluffy Samoyed, you'll be fine. The Chinese apparently fine certain breeds very threatening.

I'm surprised that no one has brought this up, but how Kunming reacts to your dog depends a lot on the size and breed of your dog. I live near Green Lake and have a Belgian Mallanois, which is about 25 kg and looks like a small German Shepard. He is a service dog and extremely well behaved, which is why I was totally unprepared for how people react to him. Women literally have SCREAMED and jumped out of the way when I walk him (scares the crap out of the poor dog). I've seen people get ready to hit him, just "in case" he did something.

But if you have a little, tiny dog or a big, fluffy Samoyed, you'll be fine. The Chinese apparently fine certain breeds very threatening.

I'm sad to say that I was thinking about this the other day, and I'm sort of with arronb here. At this point in my life, I have traveled to about twenty different countries, including some pretty rural spots in Africa where foreigners are REALLY uncommon. My normal way of dealing with staring is to make direct eye contact and give a big smile. If it's a child staring, maybe a wave too! I am a petite, pleasant looking, non-threatening woman, and in countries all over the world this almost always elicits one of two responses: 1) a big smile in return, or 2) looking away, embarrassed to be caught staring (rarely).

Kunming is the only place I have ever visited in all my travels where about 50% of people just continue to stare. Correction: continue to glower! I don't get it. Am I missing out on some cultural difference where smiling at strangers is rude?