We have been hanging out in Kunming for the last few days and I found a few places that most people already know about.
Salvador’s Coffee House is an American-owned coffee house/internet hangout/restaurant and was featured in a CNN article last year. The staff is cool and the coffee is great.
The Prague Cafe has two locations, one in Lijiang and one in Kunming. Both have the same atmosphere and have an excellent menu. Rumor has it that all the coffees listed on the menu are the same, that is, Yunnan Coffee. Whether this is true or not, Yunnan Coffee tastes good and is the cheapest, so I just avoid ordering the “Brazil or African” 30 RMB-a-cup versions. Oh, and they play Gotan, which is always all-good.
Both places are located next to Yunnan University, meaning there are a lot of Chinese and foreign students hanging out, studying English, talking about politics, using QQ (the most popular Chinese instant messaging program), and unfortunately, smoking up a storm.
Other news, I visited the official Panasonic repair center in Kunming and got my 3CCD camera fixed for $60 USD in one day. (They couldn’t get rid of the sticky buttons, thought, from that Diet Coke spill.) I also got a few BP-511 batteries for my Canon 300D, $13 each, at the Canon camera shop next to Bai Sheng (big mall in the center of downtown.)
Wow, $60 USD to fix your camera? 480 RMB? In contrast, most waitresses here in Kunming (including those at Salvador’s and Prague) don’t earn that in a month.
Robert,
Did any of the camera stores in Kunming have lens filters?
Thanks,
john m
If you go downtown to Bai Sheng (the big shopping mall), you’ll find a big KFC. Directly across the way from that KFC are a few camera stores on the left — they have filters and batteries for most cameras and camcorders. They are cheap, too. (10-12 USD per battery, versus 40-50 in the US). I got a filter for about 20 US there.