Things I can't find in Kunming...

[onebir]

1) Blutac. I've checked Walmart & the very concept seems alien in the stationery stores ('Stuff like chewing gum you can use to stick things to walls without pulling the paint off? Never heard of that!!!')

2) Brazil nuts. Checked Walmart & some local stores with no luck... (Apparently this part - along with many other parts - of China has selenium deficient soil, so local produce is probably low in selenium.)

[Rincewind]

I have blutac. I bought it two years ago in the UK and brought it with me. I haven't seen it here. When I use my blutac in class, it gets allot of attention.

The two things I miss most are Coriander powder - I know the leaf is very common but I can't find the powdered seeds anywhere - and cream - yogurt, cheese, and milk I can get, but not cream or variations there of. Not even the UNT spray cans.

[roddy]

I once had the pleasure of introducing a Chinese materials engineer to blutak. He just couldn't stop grinning.

I have seen it here for sale once, in Harbin I think. Don't recall seeing it in Beijing.

[onebir]

Roddy - Should you feel a blutac craving, in Beijing, I found blutac in the stationery section of a big bookshop (/maybe department store).

Rincewind - Coriander powder & cream I imagine you'd find in Jenny Lou's in Beijing. Even if you're not in Beijing, maybe they do mail order?

[mr.stinky]

metro has liter cartons of whipping cream and cans of spray whip cream, as well as a

decent selection of spices.

for coriander powder you might try paul's market.

[adrianlondon]

I once had the pleasure of introducing a Chinese materials engineer to blutak.

No wonder my friends who have moved into relatively new build apartments are discovering that many things are already falling apart.

You did point out that it's mainly used for posters, and not walls and windows?

[Rincewind]

metro has liter cartons of whipping cream and cans of spray whip cream, as well as a decent selection of spices.

I don't have a Metro card. Will they sell to non members?

No wonder my friends who have moved into relatively new build apartments are discovering that many things are already falling apart.

You did point out that it's mainly used for posters, and not walls and windows?

That's an idea. I'll check the local builders market. On a serious point, the kitchen roof in the house I had last year was held together by sticky tape. Not surprisingly, it was marked for demolition two days after I moved out.

[johnd]

Non-locals can easily get a free Metro card just by producing a business card, and maybe your foreign passport. But be aware that they mail promotional material to your business address every month.

[mr.stinky]

i just showed them a photocopy of my passport. they'll take a digital photo of you and make

your card while you wait. takes only five minutes, and i've never received any junk mail

from them.

and i checked wally-world today, they have whipping cream.

[onebir]

in an office supplies store I happened to go by.

It's a Malaysian produced clone called Tack-It, not the classice Bostik original. And it's a peculiar duck-egg blue. But if anyone in Kunming gets the urge to reversibly stick up posters, this is the place you need:

贝发文具,正义路边154号称156号

(Bei Fa Wen Ju, 154-156 Zheng Yi Lu)

There's a cluster of office supplies stores there, so it might be the place for other way out stationery...

[djwebb2004]

1) Nice bread is impossible to buy. They sell some bread with a horrib le sickly sweet flavour in Paul's shop, but no proper bread as such. You can get tiny slices of full-wheat bread in Carrefour, but absolutely nothing like a loaf of Mother's Pride bread in England.

2) No proper delicatessens, just counters selling whole chickens.You can't buy crumbed sliced ham.

3) You can't buy a breadbin.

4） You can't buy proper A4 paper with holes in it ready to put in your folder. You can get the lever arch binders, but not the actual punched paper.

5) You can't buy good bin bags, just tiny things that fall apart.

6) There are lots of little niggly things that are missing, although the main stuff is there.

[mr.stinky]

there's a 'wicker basket' half a block up from metro on beichenzhonglu.

never been there, but have been told the bread is good quality.

also at carrefour (at least the one on longquanlu) you can buy whole wheat bread by the

kilo. they make it in massive 25-30 kilo loaves.

make your own? metro carries teflon loaf pans. also has loaf-sized tupperware.

hooray, metro now has fitted sheets!

[onebir]

djwebb2004 - try the office supplies stores for your a4 paper, eg:

贝发文具,正义路边154号称156号

(Bei Fa Wen Ju, 154-156 Zheng Yi Lu)

[liuzhou]

1) Nice bread is impossible to buy. ... absolutely nothing like a loaf of Mother's Pride bread in England.

Has to be a wind up! Mother's Pride and nice bread don't belong in the same paragraph.

3) You can't buy a breadbin.

I guess you want to buy a breadbin to store the bread you can't buy.

[XNinja]

I cannot find good French bread and French sausage.

For the French cheese, when I came in Kunming one year ago it was difficult to find it. Now I can easily find French cheese. But it is expensive, especially the "Camembert" that costs more than 60 yuans

[abcdefg]

Walmart near 小西门 usually has fresh baguettes. Also try the bakery on the east side of 东风西路 a couple doors down from the cinema. (Near the corner of 东风西路 and 文林街。）

[onlyone]

It was not easy to issue a card for Metro last time i visited