Kunming Apartment

Click here for pictures INSIDE our apartment. We moved to Kunming in mid-August 2005, with the hope of living on-campus, but by mid-October, we had taken all we could stand of living in a small dorm room (and constantly searching through boxes to find the things we wanted). After searching for a few weeks along the only bus route that passes our campus, we finally found a place in a new complex called Chuan Yi Ying Guo. The complex name is translated "Think UK"--which is not the most accurate rendering. Roads and subdivisions all have British names, such as "Windsor Revenue" shown below. Yes, they meant "Avenue" but you have to admit that "R" and "A" could look similar to people who don't know any English. Imagine yourself trying to write in Chinese, and you will share our sympathy for such common mistakes. Also notice the misused "-ing" in the other two signs below. The best part of seeing all the "bad English" signs in China is that they remind us that we are really needed here!	This is the view from our kitchen window or Andrew's window-box seat.
When moving day came, it took two trucks to haul our stuff over from campus. It took another two months to really unpack, buy all the needed furnishings, and decorate. On the right, you see the main complex plaza, with a growing list of shops and services. At various times of day this plaza is filled with exercisers (often in rows, doing the same dance), dogs, or babies, just as you would find in most Chinese pubic parks.
It's hard to get a photo of our building, so this is really four photos pasted together! I've drawn a red box around our little corner of the world. The middle photo was taken from the main road, and you can barely see the complex in the background. Stinky creeks like this one can be found all over the city, and most people don't think twice before throwing plastic bags, trash, garbage and what not into them. When walking by, you can tell that they also serve as part of the sewer system. The right photo is there to remind us things get broken whenever you move, and that 2005 was "the year of the box"! Michael has a 25-minute bus ride to work. Andrew's trip to school was also cut to about 30 minutes as well. And we are much closer to the heart of the city, so Vivian spends MANY fewer hours per week on busses, helping Andrew get to where he needs to go, shopping, etc. All in all, it's a wonderful place to live and we are very grateful for a place to settle in Kunming.
Think UK is the green and yellow complex looming over a hazy Kunming. The haze is normal, but we also get blue skies a few days per week, which is a lot better than "a few times per year" in Xi'an. On clear days, we can even see the mountains from our complex.

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