User profile: michael2015

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming FRAUD

In case you're interested, MOST international 5 star hotels have a pre-vetted list of architects and design firms that they put into tender (bid & proposal). You would normally compete with incredibly cut-throat firms, such as HBA (look them up).

International hotels and most other tendering opportunities with multinationals for multinationals require competitive bids and rarely sole source, to reduce the risks of collusion, coercion, bribery, and corruption.

MOST international bids require prospective vendors to post bid and eventually performance bonds AND to purchase the tendering documents (usually a nominal fee, depending on one's perspective of the word "nominal"). The bid and performance bonds typically eliminate SME (small to medium enterprise) firms from participation.

USUALLY smaller firms will partner with larger well-known firms, at the risk of circumvention. This requires an extraordinarily strong relationship with the larger firms, usually accompanied by ludicrous entertainment (borne by your firm) and the scent of downstream payoffs of some kind.

SME's also need to be aware that questionable or non-vetted projects MAY use you to attract the larger fish, by creating the illusion of a competitive tender.

There are a host of other complications that make dream opportunities inherently difficult and risky, but these are some of the major white collar fraud type risks.

Kudos to you for avoiding a potentially costly and painful lesson.

That said - various regions of China a awash in genuine opportunities for qualified foreign vendors, but you need to look for opportunities that are within the monetary size and scope of your firm.

As a final note - best to try to work directly with the project's investors, as opposed to the project's management. NOT a panacea, but it helps lower your circumvention and other blatantly fraudulent risks and behaviors of project management.

Of course, investment management teams also come with their own set of risks and peculiar behaviors.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Advice on working as a tour guide for Spanish ppl

Lorena
Thank you for sharing. Hopefully, you've learned to stand up for yourself and don't be a doormat for anyone, regardless of the job. They were NOT doing you a favor, you were doing THEM a favor - for five years.

Management should NEVER yell at employees - it's abusive and bullying behavior (unless you did something incredibly stupid and irresponsible the SECOND time and even then...it's just not professional and not acceptable).

Good luck with your new job - hope you meet a higher class of professionals than the yoyo's you worked with here.

As for tips - travel agencies should establish a guideline for tips - usually 15% is the standard, 20% for great services, less for whatever reason.

Back in 1995, we usually tipped our tour guides MORE than USD 100 for 2 week trips - (that's just us), which was actually a phenomenal tip back in those days - that did NOT include whatever crumbs the rest of the tour group would tip, and we ALWAYS tipped privately.

If you'd like to return to China to work legally, drop me a PM along with your short and long-term career goals. Your multi-lingual language abilities (to include Spanish) may be very useful in the future.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > UK Citizens Brexit referendum vote

As I understand the BREXIT issue - which isn't very clear - the British were upset mostly about the influx of cheaper labor from the newer impoverished EU countries, that the EU snapped up after the USSR collapsed, making it difficult for local residents to find jobs. Getting hammered by the US lead global financial crisis didn't help - with all the bailouts.

The EU allegedly required the UK enforce gender equalization and other social responsibilities in the work force (equal pay, maternity leave, etc), so these hard won social benefits will be at risk of erosion by corporate UK.

Also, as I understand things - the UK still used the GBP and had not implemented the EUD/Euro as a currency - so that's a rather strong indicator of a rather half-hearted EU accession.

The EU itself was apparently rather ineffective - suffering from the chronic "can't please all the people all the time" syndrome, from their weak response to the global financial crisis, to dealing with the massive influx of middle eastern refugees and their rather diverse and different culture.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > China Eastern infant ticket

Suggest you escalate to the floor supervisor immediately. If no joy, then escalate to the manager who sits far away in the airport office. Usually staff refuse to honor policy because they don't know how to do it and figure if they rebuff you enough, you'll just eat it. This requires incredible patience. Also, do NOT let them move you aside so they can serve other passengers, until the manager shows up. They'll try to move you to other counters...just stand still. Two people can play the game of being a rock...it's obnoxious, but so is stealing your money.

Just remember to be polite, smile a lot, and be obstinate and politely annoying to the best of your ability.

Having a crying toddler helps exacerbate your dilemma...politely. You may also use the opportunity to change your baby's diaper on the ticketing counter...since everyone's being politely rude.

The airline will also attempt to issue a voucher, but these things typically expire within 12 months or less. If you paid with a credit card - that helps - you MAY be able to reverse the charge with your credit company, but that's also an exercise in patience.

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Yereth
I was thinking that gokm could maybe get the Kunming Tourism Dept and the KM Metro et al to pay for a professionally illustrated bilingual PDF map and maybe start a series of web articles and videos on things to do and see (and eat) at each station - aside from the major tourism venues.

NHK (Japan) did this about 20 years ago - very popular and interesting series - inspires people to get out, socialize (when it's safe) and support local businesses...or not.

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Grace
The referenced map was an ANCIENT planning map...hence the hint hint hint hint to the gokm staff - when they have budget and absolutely nothing better to do with their time...

Yereth's map is great as a geographic index - but most high density subway maps (Beijing, Tokyo) go for the symbolic stations shown in the ancient picture I referenced. These things are great as either screensavers, desktop wallpapers, or mobile phone pictures (screensavers, wallpapers) for those who commute within the bellies of these steel dragons.

I used to carry around subway maps on small plastic cards (doubled as my prepaid card) when exploring these cities. Each station had uniquely popular venues for both tourists and long-term locals alike (popular eateries, shopping boutiques, etc).

Reviews

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Took the family here to stroll around and there's a LOT of walking. Many of the stores appear closed, but the bar street nestled inside seems quite well populated.

We chose the Japanese restaurant near the entrance (there are many entrances). The food and service was quite acceptable - from the fruit salad, tuna salad, curry pork cutlet, and the ubiquitous California Sush Rolls (you can buy the small size or the large size).

It rained a little while we were there, which helped drench the heat and humidity. When the sun came out - it was HOT.

If you're lucky, you'll occasionally see people (usually women) wearing minority clothing being photographed by professional photographers. There's also a small photographer's store where you can rent various ethnic clothing and have professional pictures taken (maybe the two are related...now that I think about it).

There's also the ubiquitous game centers (shooting galleries etc) for the kids and unaccompanied teenagers.

It seems the most popular venues were the prolific food courts - but that's probably related to it being lunchtime when we visited. The place is clean and plenty of antiqued door fronts (the wood panels) for those photo shoots.

Capping off the visit, one must of course take pictures on the bridges crossing the lily ponds and the landmark temple spire. We didn't make it to the surrounding temples. Maybe next time.

Transportation is everywhere - but make sure you have your mobile phone ride share app working, just in case you hit rush hour.

Again - for now - it seems many vendors were closed - but I'm positive that'll change again as the economy begins to rebound.

Excellent way to spend a half day as opposed to the kids faces glued to their mobile devices...fresh air, good food, plenty of people watching, and walking...walking...walking...

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Took the family here a few days ago. Wonderful place to go walking with lots of snack & drink kiosks (along with chairs and tables) to rest frequently. This zoo is similar to most other large open air zoos with reasonably spacious enclosures. This place is HUGE so be prepared for a LOT of walking. Consider wearing sensible hiking or walking shoes. Your feet will be grateful.

Entrance fees when we went still cny100 for adults and kids cny70. Feeding the animals at the managed venues - cny30 per site...per child. Monkeys can be fed by tossing carrots and sliced apples into their enclosure - which is good. Monkeys famous for flash mobbing. Can be terrifying for kids (and adults). Even in the enclosures, you can clearly see they're territorial and aggressive. Bullying is displayed frequently enough for teaching moments for the kids (cuz there are monkeys in all schools everywhere in the world).

MOST people bring their own food and drink, as the kiosks are quite expensive. Example a cny5 drink outside is cny10 in the zoo, so expect most everything to be twice as expensive. I had a bbq chick drumstick (leg?) for cny25...ouch.

Bring carrots. LOTS of carrots. The zoo has several managed (paid) and unmanaged petting areas for most semi-domesticated animals, such as the Alpacas (seriously cute), deer, giraffes (ok...you can feed the giraffes on an elevated platform, but probably difficult to "pat" the animals. It's kind of spectacular to actually see giraffes face to face - these animals are simply vertigo inducing huge and tall.

The seal show was nice - typical of seal shows everywhere. Seals are kind of like the dogs of the sea. Friendly and ravenous appetites so easily trainable.

Lots of cheap touristy souvenirs to buy the for the kiddies (and relatives kids).

HIGHLY recommend taking the bus tour - they basically zoom around picking up and dropping off customers (they check your e-ticket at every pickup site) at entrances and exits to walking enclosures. They'll drop you off at roughly 15 minute walking sites. NO need to rush and you can grab ANY bus upon emerging from the walking enclosure sites.

Of course, the ultimate attraction always the lion and tiger exhibits at the top of the mountain.

Bring a fan. It gets hot. We were fortunate as the sky was mostly overcast so the temperature was generally cool, but heated up almost instantly whenever the sun peeked out of the clouds.

Bring LOTS of water. Most veteran tourists have their own liter bottles of water. Bring your own umbrella. When the sun comes out - it's HOT. Bring a wide brimmed hat if you're into comfort over vanity. SUNTAN LOTION never goes astray.

Aside from that - typical Chinese group site with everyone rushing the buses and ticket counters. Not so much rushing for the food venues, so seems the elevated prices keep that comfortably in check.

All in all - GREAT place to take the kiddies (or a date if you both know you're into each other - cuz you'll be spending an entire day together). The Outdoor Zoo seems exceptionally well designed with plenty of both managed and unmanaged (eg walking deer along the roadside and the stroll through the peacock "garden").

Easy cab or shared ride out and back. Taxis aplenty when you're ready to leave (just walk past the parking lot gate - they'll be waiting for you). You should consider dining out or delivery at the end of the day.

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Took the kiddies here again.

1. It's FREE.
2. NO knives, lighters, sharp objects, etc. There's a place in front to check bags, luggage (if you're traveling), etc - but the exit is in the rear of the monolithic building, so it's a bit of a hike to walk back around to the checked storage area (it's also FREE).

THIRD FLOOR
We went straight to the third floor - History and artifacts of Yunnan (mostly). Rich history - lots of original sculptures etc removed from grottoes and displayed in the museum. Lots of English language titles and occasionally some explanatory text in English.

SECOND FLOOR
This is the evolution floor with lots of petrified artifacts - sea life mostly, lots of recreations of animals and environments from pre-man times.

There are coffee shops and dining areas on the first floor and drink vending machines on the second and third floors. The place is HUGE so a great place to take the kiddies and walk around until they're tired. They'll probably enjoy the dinosaur exhibit on the second floor the most. Wait a few minutes and the dinosaurs will roar and move their heads and maybe pretend to chew (open and close their maws).

PLENTY of parking and unfortunately NOT close to any subway station, so you'll have to grab a cab or rideshare but seems taxis and transportation are aplenty in the city and surrounding environs.

And...it's FREE for now. Museum closes at 5pm so make sure you leave by 430-445 so you can hike back to the storage area if you checked anything in as they also close at 5pm.

Enjoy!

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This is a great place to walk around and generally kill time while shopping for nothing in particular. Nearby is the Paulaner Brewhouse for super fantastic food, coffee and drinks, outdoor patio dining or just hanging and people watching.

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DATE
2022.01.17

SUMMARY
Just popped in for the annual to biennial visa health check. Cost was CNY 487 - don't forget to bring at least THREE (3) visa pictures and your mask.

As usual, there are TWO health codes to display - the usual kunming/yunnan green QR code and the green "Arrow" code.

ARRIVAL
I went late in the morning, but still managed to shuttle through all the departments and get out before lunch.

I used didi to get there and the map now correctly shows the rear parking entrance as the destination drop-off point. You can also take the subway to a nearby station, and walk walk walk walk walk - it's actually not too far but it will elevate your blood pressure and pulse (BPP) - so make sure to rest 5-10 minutes to allow your BPP to drop back to resting state.

Upon arrival at the main gate, you'll do the usual check-in procedure - mask, sign-in, green QR code, temperature check.

Once inside - Present your passport, green QR code, and green (hopefully) arrow code. Scan the QR codes on your left as you walk in if you don't have these prepared already. The staff will then pass you an application form. Walk over to the wall of stand-up desks to your right, fill out the forms, then stroll over to the clerks to present the form. They'll print out a sheet of bar coded labels for your tests, take your digital picture, attach everything together with a paper clip, then direct you to the cashier to pay CNY 487 (WeChat, alipay, bank card, etc) Don't know if they still accept cash.

HEALTH CHECKS
Hike up the the 2nd or 3rd floor to start the battery of tests:

3rd floor

Chest X-ray

Physical (height, weight, BMI/body mass index)

2nd floor

ECG

Sonogram

Urine test

Blood Test

Eye test (color blindness and eye chart)

Dental

Heart (pulse, blood pressure)

I may have missed a few like the OB GYN...

It seems they also have a COVID/NAT (nucleic acid test) center in a shipping container lab outside the health center - but I didn't bother jogging over to check if it was still operational. In retrospect, should've checked, as the hospitals are jam packed with Chinese New Year travelers.

RESULTS PICKUP
The test results are ready the afternoon of the second day. The facility seems sparsely busy even though they service both foreigners and nationals. There were rarely lines or noticeable waits beyond a few minutes, with at most 1-2 people ahead of you.

Staff are always nice, polite, professional and tirelessly patient for those of us with limited to no communications abilities.