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Forums > Living in Kunming > Finding a mountain bike on a budget

???

Anyway, the reason I would suggest buying off a foreigner is that typically they aren't in China very long, so sometimes you can get a bike in basically brand new condition. The ones at the used bike stores tend to be a little more beaten up (and sometimes stolen). I bought a Merida Duke off a coworker for 1000. It was 3600 new, and the bike was in mint condition.

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Forums > Living in Kunming > Finding a mountain bike on a budget

It depends on how you define "mountain bike". A lot of people these days claim only the downhill bikes with high end suspension forks are the "real" mountain bikes, which is nonsense of course. I'll assume you just want a bike that can ride on trails.

It also depends on how you define "decent". I consider decent to be something with a cleanly welded frame, and a mid-level groupset such as Shimano Altus, Acera or Alivio. If you cheap out and get a bike with low end components (like Tourney or even lower), the springs and mechanisms will rust or wear out quickly, or require constant tuning. In my opinion, if you buy new you won't get anything decent for less than 1200RMB unless you are really lucky.

My personal recommendation is to buy second hand. Depreciation on bikes is astronomical. 700 will get you a well equipped second hand bike that cost 2000+ when new. Normally the best way you can get these is from other foreigners who are leaving China, but I've also seen some pretty good deals in bike shops. Don't worry about some minor scratches as long as everything works. Just spend 100-200 more to get new tires and brakepads, and you're good.

BTW is Merida German? I was pretty sure it was Taiwanese.

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Forums > Food & Drink > Blue ice cream

I'm sure just about any flavour could be made to taste good if you add enough sugar.

In China cheese flavoured icecream and yoghurt is already pretty popular, so blue cheese isn't much of a stretch. They probably just added blue food colouring.

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Some places have adequate trash collection service but locals still choose to burn the trash to cook with and heat their homes. It's pretty common with the elderly. They also like to burn coal inside their homes when radiant or electric heating is available to save money.

I am living in Shandong Province, which is just about ground zero for air pollution. The main crop here is wheat, and they burn it.

When I stayed in Dali for the entire month of February, the air quality index was over 100 almost every day. There is very little industry in Dali, but you can clearly see where the air pollution is coming from...farmers burning stuff. I have a clear view of the valley, and I toured it several times on a bicycle.

Not all the pollution in China comes from factories. A lot of it comes down to bad personal choices like driving a car to save face when a bus or bicycle would do instead. How about all the uncontrolled exploding of firecrackers? When the government tried to regulate it people got angry that their right to foul the air was being infringed upon.

How about the 700 million farmers that are constantly burning garbage and organic material (rather than rotating crops)? Agricultural pollution in China is huge problem, but it's not something that can be dealt with easily because many of these farmers simply can't afford to adopt modern farming methods. It will likely take decades to move these people into urban middle class environments and switch to large scale farming.

Anyone know when Metro Line 3 will come online? I read in another article that the local government was being pretty quiet about it. I thought I recalled a completion date of spring 2015, but maybe it's been pushed back to 2016 now?

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