ianandmarStill the same question we get even after living in Kunming for almost 2 years. How is our life in Kunming? what is life in kunming china like?
Why Kunming? How did we even find this place?
China is a very big country, with a lot of huge provinces, with even more cities within. Back when we were still living in Singapore, we reached a point where we felt we needed change. It was pretty comfortable back there, everything was so convenient.
But at some point in our lives, we just couldn’t keep on going. We stopped and questioned ourselves why are we even working in a 9-5? Do we actually want to clim the corporate ladder? We then took a leap of faith, left Singapore for China.
Read more about our FIRST VLOG in MANDARIN here.
How did we even find Kunming? We didn’t. A friend found it for us. He first went and applied to a school to study Mandarin; we then followed 6 months later.
Because we were lazy to research and our friend seemed okay living here, Kunming seemed a suitable place for us, money-wise especially.
Did I mention that everything in Shanghai is 4X as that of Kunming? And also, Kunming has the freshest air in China, so what’s stopping us right?
Here, everything is affordable.
Food, school fees, dorm fees, every day life expenses, it was all good. Transportation? The best! Buses from starting point to their last stops are only at USD 0.30 (CNY 2/Php 14) at max. We don’t take buses though as we have an e-Bike which we bought for USD 280 (CNY 1900/Php 14,300). Charging is free in our dorm and everywhere else, even in noodle houses.
Forgot to mention that Kunming has the best climate!
Average temperature for summer is at 18°C while winters are at 8°C. I had my first Spring, Autumn, and Winter here. Love love the climate!
Having been living here for the past 1.5 years, we are now thinking of future plans because China isn’t the place where we would like to spend the rest of our lives in.
You might be wondering how our Mandarin is at the moment. As that was the sole purpose of us coming to Kunming, we did make videos to keep track of how our Chinese got (slowly) better.
Kunming 2015: 5 months in 5 minutes
Kunming 2015: 5 months. 5 minutes.
Whew that was fast!
We arrived in China last year not knowing what to expect.
After traveling around the country for 3 weeks prior to settling down in Kunming, we realized that we are quite lucky to be studying Mandarin in this city.
Kunming is, by far, our most favorite city in China!
Fresh(est) air, cheap(est) food, friendly(est) people -compared to the rest of the cities in the country. ✌Quite excited to discover more of Kunming in the next coming years.
Planning to study here for 3 years – hope that’s enough duration to unlock the skill!Will be back after winter vacation, after our 2-month travel around Asia.
In the meantime, enjoy a compilation of iPhone clips taken during our first 5 months last year.Feel free to comment and let us know what you think!
brb exploring HK,
Ian and MarPosted by Ian and Mar on Saturday, January 9, 2016
Life in Kunming
If you are interested to know more about our school or our life in Kunming in general, comment below or send us a message. We are helpful most of the time!
Thanks for the information! I do have a few questions. I have lived in China before, in Thailand now, but I want a place to use as a home-base while I travel. Why would you recommend Kunming over other places? Is it pet friendly? How easy is it to travel internationally from there? How is the expat community? Thanks. Also I bake as a hobby, is there any kind of baking supply store that you have seen/heard about?
Hi Tara! Kunming is a nice base to travel around China, but not internationally. Normally when we travel overseas, there is either a layover at Fujian or Hong Kong. Expat community is relatively big! There are foreigner owned bakeries already in Kunming, especially around Kunming University. There are a lot of foreigners there and when we lived there, we usually help each other out. It is very helpful to browse through http://www.gokunming.com. 🙂 Good luck!