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Kunming and Yunnan Normal University


Diego

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Hi all,

I am moving to Kunming in few days! I have been in Chengdu for 6 months, Beijing and South of China for some months...

I have few questions bout Kunming:

1) I have my own website but here (south of china) inside the internet-points they have not CD roms. So I can not upload my pics etc.. I will face the same problem in Kunming?

2) Here it's very boring while, Chengdu Nightlife wad pretty good, even if not as good as BJ for example. What about Kunming Nightlife? I mean PUBS etc...

3) I have read in the forum that someones was complaining about hot water in the appartment etc... is it true? They have not hot water for having a daily good shower or whaterver an heater?

4) Last question: do u like YNU? wht bout the teachers?

:help :help :help

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I joined this forum few months ago. I have understood that, considering tha more or less in Kunming all the University are very similar, anyway ,YNU is considered the best for foreigners students. But.. anway, I have never been there! I have jsut read this forum.. no more! :roll: :roll:

I hope that someones will answer to my questions as soon as possible...

Keep in touch man!

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Hey whats up Diego, just got a quick question for you. Can you tell me some fun places to go at nite in Chengdu? I was there earlier, and the only place I knew of was the MGM club that someone told me about. Any other clubs in Chengdu?

-D

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i arrived in kunming beginning of november, have been undergoing tutoring 12 hours

per week at yunnan normal since then. email me at geheimsachen@hotmail if you

have any specific questions.

ynnu seems to be a decent school, although i have not been in group classes as

yet. my tutors are all staff teachers and all helpful. no real complaints - any

problems i had were immediately rectified. still there are other options with half a

dozen universities in the city.

internet salons run 1.5-2 kuai per hour. i believe the school internet center charges

2/hour, but hours are limited. i don't know if any of the above have cd access.

kunming nightlife is awesome. that is, if you consider watching the traffic lights

change to be entertainment. there are bars and pubs, of course, but nothing terribly

exciting that i have found as yet. seems you pretty much have to make your own

party.

hot water? hahahhaha! you will be lucky to have lukewarm water, assuming the roof

mounted solar collecters are functioning. best option (as we have here) is to have a

water heater installed. also note there is no heating in apartments here. it's been about

15 degrees celcius day and night for the past two weeks. i've been told that's about

as cold as it gets.

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In Chengdu there is a pub called Carol..it's easy to find, just ask to the first foreigner u will meet. Or u could go to Kakadou disco... u will see many 'devils' inside it! That's pretty good if you want to see a chinese disco. Anyway, if u prefere a drink among "Laoway" Carol would be better!

Back to Kunming..

is it easy to find an appartment with water heater installed? How much is it?

Keep in touch..

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When does it start?

Does anyone know if they open a begginers' class in the spring as well?

Is there an email i can contact the uni?

And what about the Eastern College for Languages or whatever it's name?

For some reason i can't find their site anymore. :wall

Are they still having the chinese classes? When will the semester start there?

Maybe there's an email addy...

xie xie you dudes!

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yes, the computers at yunnan normal do have cd-access.

winter class ends 14 january.

schedule for spring '06:

feb 20-24 register/take placement test

feb 27 orientation

feb 28 fetch class schedule/textbooks

mar 1 classes begin

term will last 18 weeks. they expect to have beginners/pre-elementary/elementary

and intermediate classes.

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Hi there,

I'm a new member here, but I've lived in Kunming about a total of two years, on and off.

Yunnan Normal University is great, but western people are a minority (at least full-time students). Mostly Thais, Koreans, Vietnamese, etc. The classes and teachers are good (I take Yi-Dui-Yi, not Xiao Ban) but you have to take an initiative because sometimes the staff aren't very helpful.

Kunming is a great city, salaries are lower than other parts of China, but then again the cost of living is lower as well. YNNU is a nice campus, but the foreign students dorms are a bit pricy (around 1000RMB per month) as of 2004. Since then I haven't lived there. Renting a room outside is relatively simple if your Chinese is up to snuff, and prices can be low if you aren't too cheap. I current live in a 60 m/2 apartment with two bedrooms, living room, kitchen, etc. and it costs around 1000RMB per month five minutes from the school.

Hot water won't be a problem with a gas heater, but a lot of the buildings have solar heat as standard, and in the winter it can be pretty useless!

Nightlife is okay if you like hanging around expat bars drinking beer and smoking. There is a nightclub district but it's rather small, the bars are expensive, and the DJs play horrible music. Most Chinese people dance like robots here.

The good thing is there are quite a few foreigners here compared to 2003. I would say the numbers have tripled, easily. However, a lot of them just kind of "hang out" and study Chinese as a way to get a visa and stay. If you truly want to study Chinese there are definitely some foreigners here who can help you out.

If you have any more questions, just post. I'll try to help with anything I can. :)

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Timkunming

1 Are there italians in Kunming?

2 How many good expat bars in Kunming: 1, 2? Generally how many ppl inside during them the weekend? I amsking it beacouse I coming from the "nowhere", and I really need to make some good parties, or at list, to enjoy some better nightlife.. I really miss it.

3 Is it really cold as u say? I mean.. once u got hotwater and an eletric heat should be ok.. is not it? Maybe the hotwater is MA MA HU HU (not so hot) too? If I can not have a good shower everyday I think I will not come to kunming. It's better to go back to Chengdu..

Waiting your answer.. take care and best ragards!

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Hi Diego,

1. As far as I know, there are SOME Italians in Kunming, but I would say the high majority are either French or Americans. There is a bar called Salvador's which I believe is run by an Italian, although I may be wrong on that.

2. There are some good expat bars right around Wen Lin Jie on Wenhua Xiang. During the weekends they are usually pretty crowded and there's a steady nightlife, although I believe in Chengdu it's probably better. There is a misconception that Kunming has a lot of foreigners. This is partially true as a high majority are backpackers who stay for a few weeks and move on. The permanent population is quite low compared to other major Chinese cities due to its relative remoteness.

3. Despite being called the "Spring City" Kunming has seasons. Winter is cold, no doubt about it. Then again, I come from the southern United States. In the winter there will be some snow, not a lot, but it does happen on occasion. Bring sweaters and jackets for sure. So long as your apartment has a water heater you should be fine, but relying solely on solar heating in the winter is a bad idea in my opinion. Gas is rather cheap so it shouldn't be a huge burden. However don't expect most apartments to be equipped with one, especially if you're running on a budget.

I hope this helped and perhaps sometime we'll see you in Kunming!

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1. there are a good number of italians here in kunming.

2. the "bars" in wenlinjie/wenhuaxiang are more like cafes than bars. salvador's is american/canadian/japanese owned. as far as music goes, the main bar in that area with plenty of expat's and locals is speakeasy on dongfengxilu near the xinjianshe movie theatre at the corner of wenlinjie/dongfengxilu. its mostly djs, but occasionally they have live music, but it is not the center of live music like little bar is in chengdu. the bar next to the main gate of kunming university sometimes has live bands. there are some other places that occasionally have live music, but it is hit-or-miss unless you are well connected in the local music scene which is fragmented like anywhere else. there are bars in other parts of the city with lots of expats but they are mostly sleazy places with a mixed bag of horny foreign men, slutty chicks, and the occasional gay/lesbian/cross-dresser/transsexual...i.e. places like (cafe de) camel, etc.

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Kunming may be referred to as the Spring City, but I can tell you that today is a very chilly day in Kunming - I arrived in the city last night.

The locals assured me when I was there that the weather used to be far more moderate, with more even temperatures. They blame the change on pollution, but who knows, maybe they just remember the past more fondly on principle. Anyway, the elevation is high enough that the air is noticeably thinner, so heat poured into an area can disappear quite quickly if it's overcast long enough. Sometimes even in the middle of the summer, during the rainy season, two or three days with no sun and it's downright cold. Last winter I was there, it even snowed at least once.

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