taufic, really, I think you're worrying too much. I've been here 12 years, eat wherever I want, have only very rarely had any stomach problems that didn't go away in 36 hours, and there are no significant epidemic diseases to worry about. I wouldn't bother to recommend safe restaurants, but if I thought really hard I might come up with one that isn't, but I can't think of any such at the moment. I buy my food at a local shop near where I live and I buy fresh vegetables and meat in the local market. And the stomach problems that didn't go away in 36 hours went away in 48. There are very few problems with violence, although there are fights in bars once in awhile, but no more than anywhere else. The only criminal problem that I know of that has affected any significant number of people whom I know is bicycle theft. I have had no special vaccinations against anything since coming to China. I am well over 60 years old. An American friend of mine had a heart attack a few months ago; he then had triple bypass heart surgery in a local private hospital in July - the surgeon flew in from Beijing to do it, and it cost him about US$20,000. I ran into him about 5 days ago and he looked better than he has in years.
My guess is that you live in a more dangerous environment than I do, or for that matter, than most people do.
As for families with children, there are more of them all the time.
Relax.

The VIP thing, although obviously an import of economic discrimination from the overall society, does not add up to a very high degree of milking.

@HFCampo: Well said! But many sources other than the Big 5 are full of bs as well.
And then there is Chinese tv news...

@taufic: simply because the issues that you mention, while real, are not really all that bad. I wouldn't call medical care here at a 'low' level, though I wouldn't call it high, either, and is certainly more than sufficient for the great majority (of urban dwellers, anyway) most of the time; and anyway unless you need some kind of daily care for serious conditions, there are better medical facilities available in Hong Kong, Chiangmai and Bangkok, not so far away. As for 'not so cheap', well, it depends on your standard of comparison, but it doesn't seem expensive to me - where do you live and how expensive is it?. Complaints about pollution are largely in comparison to how it used to be, which was better than it is today - the situation is certainly much better than in many, many other Chinese cities, and that in quite a few non-Chinese ones.
Another reason for staying here is that the province is really beautiful and varied, and the people are a bit more laid back than in much of the rest of China.
Then, for some of us, there is a longtime fascination with many aspects of Chinese cultural, history, development, etc., which take on a somewhat particular character from many other parts of China because Yunnan is a border province with a unique history and a great variety of local cultures.
Finally, I've got a lot of friends here.
taufic, have you ever spent any time in China? if not, you may be looking at it from an outside perspective, and there are many outside perspectives about the country which are exaggerated in one direction or another. Some people bring those perspectives with them (and no, outside perspectives are not useless), and it takes them awhile to begin to see what they see rather than what they think they are seeing. This is particularly the case for those who haven't yet, or don't ever, learn to speak the language, which is a rather silly way to live anywhere.

Compensation to displaced villagers doesn't always get paid or is inadequate.