User profile: ludwig

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Forums > Food & Drink > Dai restaurant

I like the one on Luofengjie: walk up from Green Lake towards the zoo/Yuantongjie and turn right into Luofengjie at the second intersection. It is about 100m in on the right hand side.

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Traveling to Weixi (维西) advice

Not sure what information you need, so this is what I can think of:

- Weixi is not really that far any more as a very much improved road connects it to Dali. Travel time to Dali is now less than five hours. There is a daily morning bus around 7:30 or so from Xiaguan's Northern Busterminal. Inaccurate (there is only one bus in the morning, plus a sleeper) time-table is here:

www.yunnanexplorer.com/transport/station/dali-north/
You can also go from Kunming's Xibu, but only by sleeper-bus.
- Transport from Weixi: see the time table here: www.yunnanexplorer.com/transport/station/weixi/

- Hotel situation in Weixi has much improved. When you arrive at the bus-station walk uphill (right out of the station) until you get to a round-about. Turn left and there come about 10 hotels along the street. The best one will set you back about Y120, but most are Y 50 for a standard room.

- Things to do in Weixi? In town not very much, I am afraid. But there is a good Lisu market on Saturdays at Xiaoweixi right on the Mekong. At the same place, a bit north, comes the Xiaoweixi Catholic Church. Travelling further north takes you to Kangpu, a dirt-poor township by the river. A bit north of it comes a turnoff which takes you up the hill to Kangpu's Tibetan Temple Shouguosi. Further north the next township is Yezhi, a Lisu township (not much there, they have an old Tusi compound that has been under 'renovation' for the last five years), but a bit south of it (and now developed as a tourist site) is a pretty Lisu village built entirely from wood on a steep slope. Cannot think of the name right now, but it is something like 'Everybody happy' (I guess the Chinese came up with that name). There is basic accommodation in Yezhi (the best in the guesthouse for the Three Rivers in Parallel National Park). Then comes Cizhong church on the other side of the river, some nice guesthouses there.
- Not much transport along the river apart from very few scheduled busses. For flexibility try hiring a minibus in Weixi: outside peak holidays it should cost about Y500 to Cizhong, during peak holiday much more if you can find a vehicle.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > American Military Cemetery in Puzhao

If you use Google Earth or something (not Google maps, they are off by several hundred meters): N25.003099 E102.80293.

There is also a map at www.yunnanexplorer.com/map/flyingtigers/
(shameless plug, will only work in new browsers). The location of the stone marker is the brown dot.

Easiest way to get there is to find a taxi driver who knows where Puzhao 普照村 is (and is willing to drive there). Just before Puzhao is a turn which takes you on a rough road crossing the railway and going a little uphill towards some old factory building (hey this could be anywhere in China). That is as far as a car can go coming this way. On foot you then head uphill on an ill-defined path with the old factory to your right. You will already see a few Chinese graves. Once on top you will also find a better dirt road (there is somewhere a road connection to it, of course, but I do not know where), where you turn left and follow that path going slightly uphill. The new stone marker, put there just a few years ago, comes maybe 100-200m on your right. That's it. Do not expect any bones or skulls on the ground.

Ludwig

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Forums > Travel Yunnan > Extending visa in Dali?

The PSB handling visas is in a large building on the western side of the highway leading from Xiaguan to Lijiang, just south of the Century School and north of the northern Xiaguan bus station. The building has a kind of an Eiffel tower on top.

Bus #8 from Xiaguan train station to Dali passes it. If coming from Dali on this bus, you pass the toll station and then a bit further down you will spot the eiffel tower coming up.

You will need your passport, some money, a photo. Your guesthouse in Dali should have registered you with the police (they can do that online) or you will have to bring a registration document from the local police station. They do check that you are registered locally.

Visas take two days, plus the new visa will start when you pick it up, not when you apply (as in KM)

You will not really need any help, it is all easy.

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I do not think Yereth managed to crawl out of bed 'looking for the perfect early morning shot': they do not keep the lanterns on until the morning, so it was probably accidental shutter release on the way home after a few beers.

Best time for a good picture at Black Dragon Pool is early morning, after 8:30 the light turns flat even in winter. Plus bring a long lens to shorten the perspective. With your Lijiang 80Y ticket you only get one entrance to the park, but it is easy to see if it will be worthwhile from the outside.

I am not sure if the building still exists, but near the market is/was a two story building where (with a little bribe to a local resident) you could climb on the roof for a shot over the old city towards the mountain: best in the afternoon.

Lijiang is the only place where I hesitate to take photos of the very few remaining locals. They must be feeling like Paris Hilton out in her underwear every time they leave their house. Give them a break.

The airport express busses are supposed to be starting at 5am, not sure if it is true though. #1 runs from the old Nanjiang Hotel at Xiaoximen.

en.kunming.cn/index/content/2012-03/05/content_2865380.htm

Otherwise I have found that it is no problem getting a taxi early in the morning from the Kundu area, much easier than later in the day. Around 6am plenty of taxis still show up to take people back from a night out and they always seemed to be happy to take me rather than someone likely to throw up inside their car.

You can all check how much water you are using by looking at your water bill: a cubic meter (=1000l) of water costs 3.45Y, so if your bill comes to more than 10Y per month per person you are using more than 100l per day.

Even on our half-day rationed water in our flat, we still managed to use about 70l per person per day in April/May. We blame the cleaning lady.

August is certainly not the best month to go. Even if it does not rain, the mountains are most of the time shrouded in clouds. Landslides are the biggest risk, particularly if one attempts to cross a recent one.

Properly done, the walk is not difficult and there are some ways to cut out the more boring bits. I would suggest taking a car up to a little teahouse, called something like Sunrise Guesthouse where the trail branches off the dirt road that goes up to some village. (Starting from Qiaotou the walk is first along the road, then up the mentioned dirt road, before it becomes a trail.) The best guesthouse the Naxi Family GH, IMHO, then comes after a not too difficult walk. It has the nicest views in the afternoon (clouds permitting) and is not as crowded as Halfway House. The second day would take you through the 18 bends and the highest point to Halfway GH for lunch (not many people there for lunch, many Koreans seem to arrive after dark, hiking all the way from Qiaotou), and after lunch down to the road at Tina's, from where you could take a car back to Lijiang (the walk is then all along the road).

The coming weekend is particularly good for a visit to Xishan as 三月三 (the third of March in the lunar calendar, this year on March 24th) is the traditional folk festival day 耍西山. It is an occasion for theatrical performances like local opera plays, song and dance and is extremely popular. (If you are looking for solitude, this might be a day to avoid.)

To make the most of the weekend, this year the festival is extended to Sunday as well. More info on this year's activities here: yn.yunnan.cn/html/2012-03/16/content_2097736.htm

Reviews

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It is rare to find good approximations of western food anywhere in China and their lamb-chops (listed as lamb T-bone steak or so) were the best I have found so far. They came with good fries and the beer was cold. I liked the way that they serve the gloopy 'black-pepper sauce' separately, so one can just skip it. Pleasant and quick service too.

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A pleasant modern eatery. The menu claims the chef worked for a large Chinese chain of Thai restaurants, but the Thai aspect of the food is difficult to find.

I gave the 'boneless chicken feet' a miss and had some spicy beef which while not bad was closer to the usual Sichuan fare than anything Thai. A dog under the table quickly lapping up any dropped food complemented the Sichuan experience.

The spring rolls were not bad though and together with a beer the bill came to Y58.

Easiest improvement would be better rice.

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Easily the best bread to be found in Yunnan with friendly and efficient service. I have made detours to Dali just to pick up some bread on the way back to Kunming.