User profile: Alien

User info
  • Registered
  • VerifiedYes

Forum posts

0
Forums > Food & Drink > Finest Chinese Restaurant?

'Chinese restaurant' is a rather vague term - imagine going to Germany, Italy, Hungary or France and asking for the finest European restaurant. The variety of Chinese cuisine is comparably enormous. I am not pretending to be terribly knowledgeable about the subject of Chinese restaurants or Chinese food, but when 'foreigners' (whatever THAT means) in China discuss the issue in this manner we must look pretty stupid.

0
Forums > Living in Kunming > Buy a appartment in Kunming

(1) Passing wealth on to children obviously contradicts the idea of a level playing field for everyone.
(2) In the UK, or anyway in London, one does not get total ownership of property, to do with as one please forever (I'm not too sure how this works, as I'm not British) - what you get is long-term leasehold. Ownership of many things, in many societies, is rarely a simple yes/no, black/white proposition.

0
Forums > Travel Yunnan > Hainan visa.

darcus, I assume you meant 'getting the visa on arrival when entering Hainan Island', right? (as Hainan is part of the PRC) Or is Hainan special in some way (like Hong Kong, Macao, etc.)?

0
Forums > Study > New X visa regulations

I have an F visa. In the past every visa I have had counted the day of entry as Day 0 - I am very sure about this. Go Fish says now the day of entry counts as Day 1. Does anybody know for sure?

Classifieds

No results found.

Comments

What I'm saying is, that in the current situation the political significance of the name is more important than whatever the British decided to call it. And accepted English politic-geographic names do change (e.g., Bombay is now Mumbai in English, Persia became Iran (the name that Iranis themselves use)). It's all okay with me, but you are right to consider the political significance of names.

The name by which the country should be called should be left to the people of the country. The opposition to the name Myanmar within Burma and outside of it has come mostly from politicized people who oppose the governments of the past few decades, who renamed it Myanmar. I'm not sure how much this is an issue for those people today, but I'll be happy with whatever the people decide.
Foreign names for countries, including English names them, often have odd origins and this is rarely a real issue for anyone concerned, but in the Myanmar/Burma situation they have taken on political significance. I usually call the place Burma, because I really think that, in the last 52 years at least, the government has been little short of horrible. If you say that 'Burma' is the preferred term for the country among its inhabitants today you may well be right, but I really don't know.

@HFCampo: Your description of smoking/nicotine addiction is ok but most smokers do not continually need to smoke more & more - I don't smoke any more now than I did decades ago.
Also, I don't understand why this is stealing from one's family.
I agree with you that nicotine addiction is a problem, and that this legal drug (nicotine) does more damage than some (not all) of the illegal drugs that you are so against.

Seems to me that, if, as you say, we cannot define which drugs should be illegal and which illegal, as the governments that you don't respect have all the power in this regard, it would also be the case that we have no power to oppose drugs like nicotine that are legal.
So - there are problems with drugs, both legal and illegal. What to do?

Introduction to the article: the CEF troops were not PRC government military forces operating outside the PRC's borders because the PRC did not then exist. Neither was the CEF a Communist Party unit, though there may have been a few individual communist troops within it.

On translation 'Burmese': the clearest way to distinguish ethnicity in the country once called Burma is to use the word 'Burmese' to refer to all citizens of Burma; the majority ethnic group in Burma are best called Burmans. Other ethnic groups are Karen, Kachin, Shan, etc.

Reviews


By

Not quite what you'd call a jumping place, but not bad at all for rather standard US-type meals, not overly expensive, and with a really good salad bar that's cheap, or free with most dinner dishes after 5:30PM. You can get a bottle of beer or even wine if you really want to, but I've never seen anybody do it - maybe that's just to take out. Chinese Christian run, and they hire people with physical disadvantages, who are pleasant and helpful. Frequented by foreign (mostly North American) Christians and Chinese Christians - was started by a Canadian couple associated with Bless China (previously, Project Grace), who are no longer here, but no religious pressure or any of that. Steaks are nothing special, and I avoid the Korean dishes, which I've had a few times but which did not impress me.

As a shop and bakery, it's very good bread at reasonable prices, of various kinds (Y18 for a good multigrain loaf that certainly weighs well over a pound. Other stuff too, like granola and oatmeal that is local, as well as imported things, including American cornflakes and so forth, which some people seem to require.


By

Large portions, seriously so with the pizza, which is Brooklyn/American style, I guess. Convivial, conversational, good place to drink with good folks on both sides of the bar, especially after about 9PM.


By

Really good pizza and steaks. The wine machine fuddles me when I'm a bit fuddled, & seems unnecessary. Good folks on both sides of the bar.