Migrant Worker

I’m hopefully well on the way to getting my Chinese text fixed (a big thank you to Michael, Princeton University alum and IT wizard who also knows Chinese). I’ve also been messing with the way things look a bit in the last week, please pardon my schizophrenic style updates for just a while longer, as I hadn’t touched html, movable type, or really anything like this in my life until about 3 weeks ago.

Along the same vein (learning new skills for a new environment), Lexi, the other Princeton in Asia fellow here in Kunming, pointed out this excellent resource to me a few days back. This website gives you access to a search-able, route-generating bus schedule for the city of Kunming. I guess it is only useful if you are 1. in Kunming and 2. read/write Chinese, so that is probably a grand total of one other person reading my blog (Lexi) and since she is the one who told me about the site in the first place, what I should be doing is apologizing for wasting your time. Sorry.

And now for something completely different —

I enjoyed this article in Chinadaily about a man who was beaten up for refusing to hire a prostitute. After turning the girl down and refusing to pay off the owner of the hotel (near the train station — best place for anything illegal in Kunming), some hired thugs beat him up.

Based on what I’ve heard from other NGO staff who work in the field, the going rate for a sex worker starts around 15-20 RMB/sex act and in sketchy hotels near Kunming’s railway station, it probably won’t get any pricier than 200 RMB. My advice to you, dear reader: just hire the hooker. Worst case scenario, you’re out about $23 US and you don’t get assaulted by hired goons.