I've already been here 15 years... international health insurance premium x 15 years + interest + time and hassle saved = ? (you waste time calculating, I'm safe in the knowledge I've already beaten the game)
As for "casevac home"? Yunnan is home. :) Local medicine is fine - good enough for 1.4 billion people, good enough for me. After all, if you aren't able to get a doctor for an op here, you can always fly to Thailand.
The tremendous effort involved in putting together the whole notion is only justified in a tiny percentage of cases and if you take a very particular worldview, and 95% of the time it cannot be linked to anything tangible. In other words, you're being had.
Insurance is like the tooth fairy!
Agree also on the "Don't buy, renting is better in this market" line of thinking. Real estate security here is illusory anyway.
Even if you have a sweet place, great management, good price ... it could fall apart in 10 years, get knocked down by the government (or worse: everything around it does, and it doesn't), be next to a new huge construction project every year (meaning constant dust and noise), etc. That's not even mentioning the standard new-build apartment complex scenario where people moving in provide guaranteed renovation noise for the first 2-3 years. Then there's the 70 year dealio where the government wants you to pay again. Weird illegal shit that happens with utilities where they sell you as a monopolized market to a certain telecom company who refuse to provide the service you need. Water mains that just stop working for a week or more. You name it, I've seen it here.
With all the fundamental unknowns ... not all of which we can openly discuss ... renting just makes far more sense.
Check out prices for luxury apartments in Thailand if you must have your name on something .. they're far better and cheaper than Kunming.
Flying is super expensive last time I checked. There is no Thailand-like Air Asia low cost carrier.
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US Ambassador to China visits Yunnan
Posted byPeter99: Unsurprising. Source?
Yelp1719: Have photographs, send me an email or private message and I can probably email them to you. For copyright reasons I wont post them online. (Nat Geo still try to sell their really old photos!)
US Ambassador to China visits Yunnan
Posted byI uncovered a really interesting article in an old national geographic about the American GIs of the period.
At night they used to drive their jeeps to a nightclub called the 'United Nations Club' and drink 'air raid juice' which was probably baijiu and apparently resulted in their inability to find their way home.
Nice to see some things haven't changed, even if it's the locals now driving and the Americans catch taxis.
Oil pipeline connects Kunming to Andaman Sea
Posted byThe sense that Singapore is a general soul-free zone, fake democracy cum dynastic oligarchy carved deceitfully out of a platform of popular communism, and general US military ally and all 'round lackey.
Woman offers marriage in exchange for brother's healthcare
Posted byOutside the TRAIN STATION?
Fail.
Someone should tell her to go to the AIRPORT, an EXPENSIVE RESTAURANT, the BANK, or the GOVERNMENT ... people with a spare 300k don't hang out in train stations.
Jianshui: southern Yunnan's cultural gem
Posted bybexkmg: Better to get a bus out of town, eg. from south bus station to Chengjiang or Yuxi. Personally I would recommend cycling from Chengjiang (where I usually live), down the east side of Fuxian lake, then there's a hilly section! If you prefer relative flat with less impressive scenery and more traffic, do the west side instead, via Jiangchuan. After either route, you should get to Tonghai. From Tonghai, there are two roads - the direct highway (veer left at the top of the hill; probably an old version of which also exists), or one of the best roads in the whole province, the road to Shiping (veer right at the top of the hill). The road to Shiping has lots of hills but is extremely beautiful and has a really long downward slope toward the end. Very little traffic, excellent surface, wild scenery. Once you're near Shiping, just head east in to Jianshui (via the bridge, Tuanshan, etc. which lie half-way between the two towns). Once there, you may as well continue on the old road to Gejiu (low traffic again) via swallow cave, then get up early in the morning to illegally cycle (with lights for safety!) through the tunnel to the south of Gejiu and enjoy the tropical descent to the Red River valley. Left for Vietnam, right for Yuanyang rice terraces (bit more up to go!)