debaser - yes it is realistic to expect this. Why? Because if GoKunming is a place that lists events that people want to see, it will increase the people that visit the site. In turn this will increase the number of people that view the advertisers in the "Events" section and enrich both the website and the advertisers.

To be honest, if I was working for GoKM, I would redesign their Events section and calendar. With the Events side bar that appears on every page I would categorise into sections (maybe one for "At bars/restaurants", one for "Cultural", one for "Music" or some other categorisation). Then only list the name of the bar/restaurant/event, with more information available when you hover over the link i.e. a popup window stating the details (like the "From The Web" section on the homepage).

This would:

1. Make the Events side bar less wordy and cluttered (which is hard to read with so much info and doesn't list all events anyway - i.e. today there are 4 Other events which you have to go to the calendar to see, users could essentially view all events on one page unless there are 40 events in one day)

2. Enable people to hover over their favourite places still to see whats on (e.g. like Orielly's to see what sport they are showing today)

3. Provide a clearer breakdown to viewers who are only interested in particular sections so don't have to read through everything to find to the one they want - which invariably they won't so people will miss events of interest.

On their Calendar page, move the calendar to the top centre instead of a sidebar on the right. Stretch the wording across for each event - effectively you will be able to list more on a single page instead of having them squashed into a thin strip down the middle.

But hey, I am just a software designer, what would I know :-)

Jian Shui is quite nice actually, I would recommend it too! Its got a sort of "fake" old town which is less fake than others I have seen and isn't frequented much by tourists. There are some fairly pricey attractions there (e.g. the Confucian park I think was 60 kuai when I went... wooo... hen gui) but it was really really nice inside and totally photogenic. Actually even the fake old town is really nice to walk around and they have a big gate building at the end of the old town main street which is actually authentic and very cool. So yep, I can also recommend!

Hey BillDan, I just came back from Metro and guess what they had! HAM! I was pretty shocked!

Its from Shanghai, labelled "French Ham" and looks like the sort of ham we have for Christmas. At 85 kuai for 3.5kg of the stuff, it doesn't look like too bad of a deal, particularly if you are a big ham eater like yourself. If you want to find it, go to the "Delicatessen" part of the cold section nearby the cheeses. It does have a number of preservatives and what not in it though, not sure if the same as you would get in the west, you might want to check it out.

No no, I wasn't being sarcastic!

Actually, I think its a kind of reverse therapy for anyone that reads it, we all kind of identify with you a little and go "Ha haa, so true!". Maybe the things you say just bother us a little bit and we don't know really how to form them into meaningful thoughts, but you enunciate them so clearly that when we read them we actually feel better! So, in fact, you are doing many lao wai a favour here, letting us privately blow of steam and recognise our own thoughts and feelings on different subjects... though yours are a little more extreme than mine!

Strange, I have never not been picked up by a taxi! I smile and wave one down, they stop and are almost always pretty happy to take a foreigner. My Chinese isn't excellent but I can usually make it known where I want to go and they are happy and usually try to make a little conversation in Chinese. I also tip them because I hear they sometimes don't pick up foreigners so this is a little bit of encouragement!