Does anyone know if foreigners are allowed to cross into Vietnam at either the border crossing in Honghe Prefecture's Jinping County (红河州金平县), or Wenshan Prefecture's Malipo County (文山州麻栗坡县)?

I know Hekou is the standard border crossing from Yunnan to Vietnam, but I've already done it several times and am looking to do something a little different this time.

I know border crossings in Jinping and Malipo exist. And the guy at the Vietnamese consulate even told me I'm allowed to cross there. The problem is I don't know if the Chinese border guards will let me cross or not.

I went to the Kunming PSB today, and they made a call to the foreign affairs bureau to ask on my behalf, but no one knew the answer.

If anyone has tried these border crossings before, I'd much appreciate any info you might have!

Thanks

Jonathan,

I don't think your post is "racist" (as its directed against "Kunmingers", not "Chinese", and "Kunmingers" do not constitute a "race"). But I do think its rather ignorant and overgeneralizing.

I understand that you and your children were put at risk and you in your frustration wrote this post. I'm sorry you had that close-call. I'm sure I would be angry too.

Of course there are lots of bad drivers in Kunming who break the rules and endanger people all the time.

But why do you have to generalize from some bad drivers amongst the pool of all Kunming drivers and imply that they are all bad? Surely this is not the truth.

In my two years in Kunming I have never been in an accident, close call, etc. I ride a bicycle. I ride defensively. Before I came to China I knew the traffic would be more dangerous than in my home country of America. This is to be expected. So I adjusted my riding style to the local conditions. Maybe I should knock on wood. But I do believe if one simply pays good attention to the road, one can avoid most accidents. That means even if there's a green light, make sure you check that the intersection is clear to cross and there are no idiots running the red light.

Also...if you think Chinese drivers are bad, then you obviously experienced traffic in Vietnam or India. Easily 10 times more dangerous than China.

By the way, the correct pinyin spelling of minivan is not mien boa che, it's mianbao che.

Kunming definitely has street food.

You just weren't in the right places.

Kunming also has tons of demolition going on. And Kunming has plenty of skyscrapers. Not quite sure how you missed that. They're also building a subway system so streets are all ripped up. There's not a whole lot of "Old Kunming" left these days.

Not sure which "foreign" bars you're talking about. All the true foreign bars (that is, owned by foreigners) have English-speaking staff.

Not only are paper 1 yuan notes ubiquitous, but so are 5 jiao and 1 jiao notes! You apparently didn't receive any of those, but they're common.
I don't see what's so great about coins. They're heavier and jangle in your pocket.
I go through 1 jiao notes pretty quickly. Public bathrooms, bike parking, paying exact change at the supermarket...all quite handy.

Some places in Kunming have beer cheaper than 10 yuan. Local Chinese places you can still get a 660 ml bottle for 5 yuan.

Don't recommend HK if its a tourist (L) visa you want.
They only give them for 6 months, and you can only stay in the country 30 days at a time

I've got a 12 month tourist visa with 90 day maximum stays. I live in Kunming.
The closest international border to Kunming is the one with Vietnam in Hekou. The next closest is the one with Laos in Xishuangbanna.

The last several times I needed to make a visa run, I went to the Lao border. It always worked well, because the Chinese and Lao border control stations are on opposite sides of a small, jungle-covered hill. Also, the Lao border offers visa-on-arrival. I would always follow the same routine: leave China, then re-enter China minutes later. I never even entered Laos or had to buy the Lao visa.

But the Lao border is considerably further away from Kunming than the Vietnamese one. And the bus ticket considerably more expensive. That's why I'm inquiring now to find out if its possible for me to repeat the same routine at the Vietnamese border or not.

The problem is that Vietnam doesn't offer visa-on-arrival. You have to get a visa ahead of time at the consulate in Kunming. Which would obviously make that a more expensive proposition. Furthermore, the border is on a bridge over the Red River, so I'm not sure if it would be feasible to pull what I did in Laos, leaving China only to re-enter again minutes later.

Anyone with any experience in this matter, your feedback would be very much appreciated! Thanks