Kunming has many problems, but flooding is not one of them.
If you really want to play it safe, take a flat above third floor and keep a canoe at hand.
We have not seen a change in water pressure or delivery times and are still down to a few hours in the evening where we have a little pressure. So, no change on that front.
But now we have a high-pressure pumping system (as have many other apartments in our compound), so now we have water all day, every day.
However, the pressure generated by the pump is so great (and cannot be varied) that we waste an enormous amount of water. We are showering under a pressure hose, same for doing the dishes. We have complained to our land-lady, who sent her plumber around again, who simply refuses to acknowledge the problem. He just suggested to always(!) have the tap running when we turn the pump on.
So, sadly, Kunming's solution to reduce water pressure in order to save water has resulted in the installation of a private pumping system (wasting power) and vastly increased water usage.
I assume similar measures have been taken by other compounds, leading to people believe that there is no water shortage, 'because the shortage is just cause by waste'. How true.
To be fair, even if the rooms where not taken, they might have been reserved.
I stayed there last November and well after dark a large number of Koreans arrived (they have short holidays, so to make the most of it they walk at night). They had obviously booked in advance as they had all whole roast chicken waiting for them. I assumed then the roast chicken thing was the 'thing to do' in TLG in their equivalent of Lonely Planet.
The guesthouse is expensive for what you get (assuming the views do not cost them anything), but then you are competing with people on a very short trip for whom 350Y is not all that much. (I stayed in the dorm for 30Y, as it had the best views. Could have done without the backpacking girls doing their makeup early in the morning, though).
I will probably go, leaving KM for Tonghai in the morning of the 5th and travel on to Longpeng in the hope of getting a room there. If that is not possible, there are other options in Xincheng (the next smaller town) or Shiping. After the event in Longpeng I will travel on to Jianshui for the annual harvest of the swallow nests in the swallow cave on August 8th.
If someone wanted to come along, drop me a line.
I will probably go, leaving KM for Tonghai in the morning of the 5th and travel on to Longpeng in the hope of getting a room there. If that is not possible, there are other options in Xincheng (the next smaller town) or Shiping. After the event in Longpeng I will travel on to Jianshui for the annual harvest of the swallow nests in the swallow cave on August 8th.
If someone wanted to come along, drop me a line.
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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.
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.
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.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted byApology accepted, sometimes in the heat of the moment we do things that we know are not right and regret later.
However, there is a different aspect to this story, which prompted my original comment. Certain countries try to erase unwelcome people from their collective memory. For writers this means: their books never published, their plays not performed, their names not mentioned. In the case of Gao Xingjian the official Chinese response was to deny that he is Chinese and he has become one of those unmentionables: so for the Chinese media, Mo Yan is the first Chinese to receive the Nobel prize for Literature.
I can accept that GoKM tries to avoid anything that is even remotely controversial (even though that is a marked change from the previous owners and GoKM appears to be more Catholic than the pope by even not mentioning Kunming events that are widely reported in the Chinese media, the most recent involving a Fujian official and a Kunming newspaper). But I do draw the line where this policy turns not just into statements that are not true, but that collude in the practice of erasing dissidents from collective memory.
There has been another Chinese writer receiving a major literary award with two more than tenuous connections to Yunnan. Searching for 'Friedenspreis 2012' will give you a few more details.
@Liumingke1234
thank you for accepting the apology on my behalf. I did not know I had an impostor on GoKM.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted byCorrection: your original page said he is the 'Mo is the first Chinese person to win the Nobel Prize for literature'.
Double checked with the Google cache:
See webcache.googleusercontent.com/[...]
Shame on you, Patrick, for changing the article and pretending you did not.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted by... 'as it clearly states in the article's final paragraph'...that you changed after I posted my comment.
The previous version said 'Mo is the first Chinese to win...', no mention of the cop-out 'citizen' in your initial version.
A mistake is one thing, a stupid mistake is another thing, not having the integrity to own up to it is three steps down from that. Shame on you.
Gao Xingjian was born in China, wrote in Chinese, got his book published in Taiwan, wrote about his life in China and everybody understood the award as criticism of contemporary China/Chinese literature.
The guy is French, obviously.
Nobel laureate Mo Yan's Yunnan connection
Posted byGao Xingjian was the first Chinese person to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. China was not pleased about it and tried to ignore it happened.
Is this already too controversial for the new GoKM?
Golden Week: Planes, trains and especially automobiles
Posted byThanks for providing another sanitized view of Yunnan that bears little resemblance to what people say about their 'holidays'. It is also good to 'know' that Yunnan has one of the best road safety records in the world, with (if one would extrapolate) just 150 people dying in traffic accidents over a year in a population of over 40 million.
Most articles by you seem to be just sloppy copy and paste jobs from the internet - essentially collations of unchecked numbers. Sometimes I wonder if you actually live here.