I was married in 2008 to a Shandong woman. We applied at an office in Jining. At that time, all we needed was my passport, a translated document from the embassy of my country proving I was single, and a photo of the two of us for our marriage certificates. I can't remember what I paid for the certificate showing marital status, but the cost of the Chinese paperwork was something like 10rmb (plus cost of translation and photos). It was pretty straightforward. I'm surprised to learn that it can take up to a year for the office to approve the marriage. I am quite certain mine took no more than a day.

This is interesting. I didn't realise that the housing reform was in effect outside of Shanghai, Beijing and Chongqing. Do these new regulations also apply to smaller cities like Dali and Lijiang?

This is great to know. One of my concerns with living in Yunnan was not having access to a good dentist. I currently have my dental work done overseas, and this should save me some time and money in the future.

It sounds like nothing has changed in 5 years. I was living in China from 2006 to 2008 and this annoyed me to no end. There is a way to get around it however (though I don't know how legal it is). At least in 2008, it was possible to subscribe to a VPN (virtual private network) in some northern European country for something like $50-$100 a year.