woaiJING you seem to come from a country where the government trusts and respects its citizens' judgement. Where the interview and subsequent judgement of the interviewer overrules the spurious rules that can make life impossible.
The rest of us appear to come from countries where the government distrusts and thinks all its citizens are morons that can't make intelligent decisions. Therefore they have to put onerous and dubious rules in place to ensure they weed out people trying to cheat the system. Guilty to proven innocent is the policy of most western countries immigration systems in respect to Chinese/Asian people. The fear that pervades the Western world when looking at Asia is obvious in their immigration policy. And we were the ones that encouraged globalisation...
The reason is because when you try to take transport after crossing the border, the transport operator will usually accept either currency (local or from the country you just came from). This was the case when I crossed from Malaysia to Thailand and Thailand to Cambodia (they preferred USD or Thai baht in Cambodia!). Don't worry, the transport operators at small crossings understand your dilemma! This is in the out of the way border crossings i.e. smaller border crossing posts without a major town around it.
At the major border crossing posts, they will almost always have international ATM's where you can withdraw money and/or they will have money exchange places. Money exchange places on border crossing posts usually give you terrible rates, but sometimes its worth it if you have lots of currency you aren't going to use. But I would advise holding onto the currency until you get to the next big town for better rates!
The last bit of advice - get about $100 in small USD notes (I would advise five $10 notes, six $5 notes and twenty $1 notes. This will cover you in cases on the rare occasion where the above doesn't work (i.e. ATM machine is broken, you cross early/late and buses aren't available - only taxis and they will only take local currency but if you flash USD they will probably accept!). Don't worry if you get to Vietnam and haven't used your USD at all - its a second currency in Vietnam and your accommodation will quote you rates in USD! You will be able to pay for lots of stuff in USD in Vietnam so can use it up.
OK OK OK... heres an idea. Who is up for an afternoon ride in the North on Friday, followed by a visit to the new Irish bar which is having its opening night on Friday in Beichen walking street. Possibly followed by a slightly drunken ride home. Sounds dangerous, I know, but I like danger :-) (plus I live in the North)...
You've got me interested in you new trail now! The loop I did with Omgiri the other day was pretty fun so I would be keen to see others in the area! How about we try and organise a 4 person ride then this week with Selman (I am sure you read these Selman!) Omgiri, you and I? Would be good to get together as a group and scare some locals... and then maybe ourselves on the trail!
Give us a yell if you get some free time during the week. I am on self directed study so can do whatever whenever and organise other stuff around riding (see where my priorities lie!).
I have little doubt that there will be a rather large price and supply readjustment to the Kunming property market. Look around at night to see how many lights are on in buildings and you will see possibly 20% in new buildings. Once the price starts dropping, all those holding these unproductive assets (who bought them thinking the price will always rise) may end up wanting to sell before the price drops further... then you are in for a real price readjustment.
It is needed though, considering rental prices in Kunming are beginning to exceed that of Manhattan. That's when you know the real estate market is out of control.
A rather large % of Chinese growth comes purely from real estate, I have heard estimates ranging from 1.5% to 4%. If the middle of this range is correct (say 2.75%) disappears, China's growth numbers start to look considerably worse at less than 5%.
Yep, some of them I think probably are. The parts I am mainly talking about though are the same ones tallamerican is talking about - big patches of road that are flat, ashphalted but look just to be missing their finishing touches. Maybe they require another govt department to do these last touches in order to reopen the roads/footpaths etc, and its not on that govt departments job sheet for a few months.
@tallamerican
I have been on Shanghai, Guangzhou, HK and the new Chengdu subway. All were almost certainly better than those in the west (well, in Italy/Spain/England - the others I have been on), probably just due to them being newer and therefore using more modern tech. The HK ones are usually the cleanest (everything is clean) but the Shanghai one is basically to the same standard as HK (except the toilets are cesspools again). Guangzhou is a little bit worse than the previous two but not by much in terms of cleanliness. Chengdu was brand new so hard to tell at that stage...
Yep, my opinion is they should get the lines they have under construction up and running ASAP before starting new ones... else they will potentially strangle the cities streets through construction everywhere. As these are 3-5 year projects, that sort of time frame can have a major influence on traffic (be it vehicular or foot) patterns, hence living standards/patterns and business profitability. Essentially they can strangle a city. Already we have parts that have been under construction and are now still blocking the traffic when it appears they could easily open them - obviously just a few finishing touches before it needs opening. My experience is that Chinese construction companies are great at starting construction and getting it almost finished really quickly, but things seem to stay in an "almost done" state for an extraordinary amount of time. All the construction people seem to move off to do the next big thing...
I was hopeful this wouldn't be the case with the subway, but cycling around I see numerous spots that probably could be open, the roads are asphalted and everything, they just haven't painted them or put in curbs yet etc etc. It seems everyone has just abandoned these sites with them 95% finished. Can anyone actually confirm that? It is possible they are actually still working underground, or are having to do xyz to enable them to put the finishing touches on.
Wow, just wow. Possibly the best Chinese food I have had in Kunming. And in one of the nicest, traditional courtyard style restaurant I have been in. A woman dressed in traditional qi pao playing a gu zheng just adds to it.
We had okra, mushroom soup, dried beef and chou dofu. All top notch with the bill coming in at just over 250 kuai. But we could have fed 3 people for that so not too bad at about 80-90 kuai each. Not the cheapest but for the quality, it's damn good.
If you have people visiting and want to take them to a traditional Chinese style restaurant with Yunnan style food, or want a romantic night out with a gal, you can't go wrong here. Close to Green Lake (down a little alley) for a romantic walk... Just perfect.
Pretty good place for getting all your documents translated and/or notarised. Note that there are a number of notaries in the building which you can find by going up the stairs (the elevators are impossible). But you have to find the stairs to do so... go in the door, head over to the right, go up the big wide stairs which head up a floor, turn right then right again into the elevator area and right again into the stairwells. Whew!
One point off for the elevators never being available and having to hike 7-9 flights of stairs (not good if you have to go 3-4 times a day like I often did!)
This does not stop at the Jinanya hotel at Da Shang Hui as the flyers state (and is on the images tab here). They need to have another stop in the same area or else they are missing out on covering a big chunk of the city.
You can take another bus, the 919C, I believe, if you are nearby Da Shang Hui, which leaves from the bus station on HeHong Lu, nearby the Qianxing road intersection. This bus goes every hour and is white, found at the western end of the station. It is operated by a different company and takes about 1 hour 10 minutes to get to the airport due to a large number of stops especially near the airport.
Friendly people, even got to the talk to the vice consulate, who told me she had done a stint in Malaysia's Siberian Consulate!
English is spoken by some of the Chinese girls working at the desk who are pleasant to deal with. I assume they do Visa's as well but I wasn't here for a visa, this time!
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Kunming new home sales plunge
Posted bySorry cloudtrapezer, I was talking about recent comments about rental space for shops, not for apartments.
Kunming new home sales plunge
Posted byI have little doubt that there will be a rather large price and supply readjustment to the Kunming property market. Look around at night to see how many lights are on in buildings and you will see possibly 20% in new buildings. Once the price starts dropping, all those holding these unproductive assets (who bought them thinking the price will always rise) may end up wanting to sell before the price drops further... then you are in for a real price readjustment.
It is needed though, considering rental prices in Kunming are beginning to exceed that of Manhattan. That's when you know the real estate market is out of control.
A rather large % of Chinese growth comes purely from real estate, I have heard estimates ranging from 1.5% to 4%. If the middle of this range is correct (say 2.75%) disappears, China's growth numbers start to look considerably worse at less than 5%.
Around Town: Yunnan Provincial Library
Posted byDid they have 50 shades of grey? I can't find that anywhere :-p
Kunming approves eight new subway lines
Posted by@yankee00
Yep, some of them I think probably are. The parts I am mainly talking about though are the same ones tallamerican is talking about - big patches of road that are flat, ashphalted but look just to be missing their finishing touches. Maybe they require another govt department to do these last touches in order to reopen the roads/footpaths etc, and its not on that govt departments job sheet for a few months.
@tallamerican
I have been on Shanghai, Guangzhou, HK and the new Chengdu subway. All were almost certainly better than those in the west (well, in Italy/Spain/England - the others I have been on), probably just due to them being newer and therefore using more modern tech. The HK ones are usually the cleanest (everything is clean) but the Shanghai one is basically to the same standard as HK (except the toilets are cesspools again). Guangzhou is a little bit worse than the previous two but not by much in terms of cleanliness. Chengdu was brand new so hard to tell at that stage...
Kunming approves eight new subway lines
Posted byYep, my opinion is they should get the lines they have under construction up and running ASAP before starting new ones... else they will potentially strangle the cities streets through construction everywhere. As these are 3-5 year projects, that sort of time frame can have a major influence on traffic (be it vehicular or foot) patterns, hence living standards/patterns and business profitability. Essentially they can strangle a city. Already we have parts that have been under construction and are now still blocking the traffic when it appears they could easily open them - obviously just a few finishing touches before it needs opening. My experience is that Chinese construction companies are great at starting construction and getting it almost finished really quickly, but things seem to stay in an "almost done" state for an extraordinary amount of time. All the construction people seem to move off to do the next big thing...
I was hopeful this wouldn't be the case with the subway, but cycling around I see numerous spots that probably could be open, the roads are asphalted and everything, they just haven't painted them or put in curbs yet etc etc. It seems everyone has just abandoned these sites with them 95% finished. Can anyone actually confirm that? It is possible they are actually still working underground, or are having to do xyz to enable them to put the finishing touches on.