User profile: Geogramatt

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming City Planning

Reducing population density is a terrible idea. Population density needs to be increased. The population densities of Chinese cities are amongst the lowest in Asia. China has the largest population in the world, and it is a population that is rapidly urbanizing. At the same time, China has one of the lowest amounts of arable land per capita of any large country. Most recent expansion in the footprints of Chinese cities has been horizontal whereas it needs to be more vertical. Most Chinese cities are located in valleys surrounded by prime arable land. It is that prime arable land that is being lost to development as city officials finance urban construction with land sales.

The new parking meters are metal disks that look like hockey pucks, embedded in the asphalt. They have sensors inside that read a prepaid parking card carried by the driver. They are more difficult to steal.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Kunming City Planning

@oyarsa
"Is there any kind of legitimate planning that goes on in the development of this city?"

Yes, Kunming has city planning. If it didn't, then it would be a far more chaotic place than it is (compared to most developing world cities Kunming really is fairly orderly and planned out).

However, I sense that the operative word in your question is "legitimate". Seeing as this is a highly subjective concept, it seems you're looking for fellow commiserators to corroborate what you feel is poor city planning.

I have friends in Kunming's City Planning and Transportation Planning departments. They are smart people with good ideas, and they have worked in conjunction with city planners from Switzerland for years. The problem, they tell me, is that in the end, they merely occupy an advisory role. Party officials all too often ignore their good advice and make decisions that are contrary to good planning. When this happens, the good folks at the planning department have no choice but to wring their hands and shake their heads.

"It seems like it is just "let's tear up the whole thing at once". Has anyone lived in other cities in China or elsewhere and seen anything like this before?"

Um, yeah, like pretty much every city in China!

One of the main things city planners do is make zoning rules. Kunming does have these. You can't build a factory in the middle of the city. Kunming has something that most American cities lack: mixed use residential and commercial land use (i.e. stores on the first floor and apartments on the upper floors of most buildings). This is very much the result of planning (which also touches on the rules of the permitting process for business) and it is an example of good city planning. Mixed use development means that people can shop for groceries and daily goods without having to drive to a shopping center. It reduces traffic and is more environmentally friendly.

Another good example of city planning in Kunming is the subway system. While we have obviously yet to see its benefits, and have only suffered the inconvenience caused by its construction so far, it will definitely make Kunming a better and more livable place once it is open. Also, in conjunction with the subway system, the city planning department is carrying out transit-oriented development policies, concentrating high density development along transit corridors.

I don't mean to sound like a booster for Kunming CIty Planning. There's a lot of nonsense, too.

The wide boulevards and huge blocks facilitate added car traffic at the expense of the more pedestrian friendly fabric of older neighborhoods. Kunming is too preoccupied with trying to make life easier for cars, when it should be doing the exact opposite. Building more roads never solves traffic problems; it only creates more traffic (it's like what Kevin Costner said in "Field of Dreams"..."If you built it they will come"). The only way to curtail traffic is to actively disincentive car use by making driving a car expensive, cumbersome, and inconvenient. Ways of doing this include new fees and taxes on gas, vehicle registration, and car purchases, narrowing streets and reducing the number of car lanes, more strictly enforcing traffic laws and punishing violators, limiting parking, and traffic calming measures such as speed bumps.

I would add another problem in Kunming's urban planning is that all of the new development is aimed at upmarket clientele. There is not enough affordable housing for the working class, for new urban migrants. This is where city planning overlaps with larger socioeconomic policy and is not the under the purview of the city planning department. Any changes in this regard will have to come from the city government itself.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > self storage/mini storage

A quick Chinese search on baidu and I seem to have answered my own question. I'll post what I found here in case anyone else is looking for the same service. I'll go ahead and keep this post up, in case anyone out there has any experience with this in Kunming, or has heard of this company I found and has any feedback to give. By the way, the Chinese word for "mini storage" is 迷你仓:

Website I found (haven't called yet to verify)
km.58.com/jiajuhuanbao/9569450533638x.shtml

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Forums > Living in Kunming > self storage/mini storage

A preliminary search reveals that this question has been asked before. However, none of the answers were very helpful, and they are all at least 2-3 years old. So here goes again...

Is there any company providing self storage/mini storage in Kunming? Does such a thing even exist in China?

I'd have maybe a couple of cubic meters of stuff—clothes, books, kitchen stuff—plus a bike to store. No furniture.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > new routes out of Kunming Airport?

So Changshui's been open for nearly 6 months now.

I figured with the larger capacity airport there would be new routes, even new airlines serving Kunming in the near future. And that new competition would drive down prices.
So far, however, Kunming's still just got a pitiful selection of overpriced international flights.
Any word on new flights in the near future? Particularly to other destinations in Southeast Asia?

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I'm a little confused about the timeline. Was this entire hike accomplished in one day, without camping on the mountain?

The original Shuanghong Bridge was even older - dating to the early 1500s. The 1759 one standing now is a reconstruction. Chinese reconstruction has been going on for some time!

I'm not sure all 农家乐 would qualify as "agrotourism". A lot of them seem to be just normal restaurants which happen to be on the outskirts of town. Not saying the ones in 百花岭 aren't, just that in general not all 农家乐 are.

I want to do this hike. Thanks for the report!

Base layer is Google Maps' terrain layer. I created the colored elevation contours by hand based on Google's (non-colored) base data. The red line was traced based on the roads layer, then altered to correct for the displacement that China orders for all of Google's maps in China

Reviews

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This is a really nice new restaurant in Dali. High quality vegetarian and vegan food, varied menu, daily specials. They make their own kombucha, too. The environment is very chill...multiple layers, floor seating, an outdoor courtyard and terrace balcony overlooking the the roofs of the neighbors in old Dali

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Serendipity is an honest-to-gosh American style diner, a concept I don't think I've ever really seen before in China.

They do salads, burgers, and pasta dishes, but the true stars of the menu are the breakfasts, which are served all day.

No measly hostel breakfast sets, these ones come with heaping servings of bacon and eggs and bottomless coffee.

No table seating. Everyone sits around the counter, where you can see what's going on in the kitchen and chat with the friendly staff.

The fresh donuts are the best I've had in China

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The 68 kuai Saturday night all-you-can-eat buffet is a terrific deal.

Steak, pork loin, chicken schnitzel, pizza, two kinds of salad, creme de caramel, cheesecake, and lots of other stuff.

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Recently experienced both very early morning departure and very late night arrival at Changshui. Was worried about making the connection to and from the airport, but both turned out well.

First, the departure. It was 7:30 am. I arranged a taxi to pick me up at 5:00. That he did. Cost: 100 yuan.

The departure was scheduled for 12:30 am, was delayed, and didn't get in until 2:30 am. I was sure I'd have to find a black cab, and wasn't even sure if I would find that. Instead, I was delighted to discover that the Airport Express Bus was still running! For 25 yuan it took me to the train station, where I then caught a cab for the short ride the rest of the way home. I was very impressed by this late night bus. I'd thought the buses only ran till around 11 pm-midnight. I don't know if this is a regular occurrence or not. Maybe, knowing my flight was delayed and there would be hundreds of passengers looking for a ride home, the airport dispatched an extra bus. If so, kudos to whoever was responsible!