What is that?

You can also change trains at Guangzhou. If you really want to save money, take the ordinary train to Guangzhou that leaves every morning from Kunming main station. It takes about 25 hours. I've done it dozens of times, hard sleeper (I think middle bunk is best, nobody sits on it when you want to sleep) - I can sleep fine but it takes too long. Really cheap, of course, is to go hard seat, but I wouldn't recommend it.
Ordinary seat on the fast trains is excellent and roomy and I stayed interested most of the time just looking out the window. Even the food is okay, damn sight better than anything on an airplane - on the ordinary trains it's lousy.

Weird things happen with the VPNs, but I wouldn't call it communism.

Dan, yes, it's very easy. You take the subway from the train station to the border, walk though immigration and customs, and the MTR is right on the other side.

The part that's off the field isn't sport, it's competitive business, where the rules, such as they are, are manipulated by the 'winners' who draw power from their winnings. Whereas the football field remains pretty much a level one, regardless of the manipulative nature of 'business'. Sports competition, within the game, thereby remains a rather passionately defended ideal for hundreds of millions, within a social world that doesn't even pretend to come close to such an ideal. Something we might learn decency from.