camera shop in Kunming, China?

Does anyone know a reputable camera shop in Kunming, China? Any

advice on how to know if a shop is good? We know it is better to buy

a camera at home, where you know which shops are trustworthy, but we

didn't (because we didn't know whether we would have enough money),

and now we would like to find a camera here.

Is it possible to buy a good camera in China, with international

warranty and English-language manual? Or is it better to do that in

e.g. Bangkok (a next stop on our trip)?

We have found a Nikon shop here in Kunming, it looks like a real

Nikon dealer, but as we don't read Chinese, how can we be sure? Is

there a website with official dealers or something like that?

Excuse the stupidity, and thanks in advance,

Arjen and Edith

I lived in Kunming from 1996-1999. Then there was really no "good" camera shops, at least what one might be used to in a larger international city. The one I used to develop my slides had lot of Nikon signs and sold Nikon cameras. This one was on Dong Feng Lu on the left up from the main circle of town (the main department store). Finding cameras there with english manuals may be hit and miss and also many may actually be "grey" market and not official Nikon products even if they are sold from an authorized Nikon dealer. Bottomline is you might find a camera with international warranty cards inside but unless you can get an official receipt stamped by an official Nikon dealer it might not be accepted by your local Nikon service centers as under warranty later. Hong Kong or Bangkok would be a better bet in my opinion but even in those places if you expect to use the warranty when you get home you have to be careful to buy from an authorized dealer. How you tell an authorized dealer? Can be hard. Only buy from those reputed reliable by other photographers perhaps here at photo.net or elswhere in online discussions. There's a number of dealers in HK that are well known to be reputable, I'm sure Bangkok is the same---but there's lots more that are not. Gotta do your research.

Enjoy Kunming. Wonderful place. I have some very found memories of my time there and all over Yunnan. I miss it greatly.

I just remembered a bigger Nikon/Canon-signed photo store that is on Beijing Lu on the left side as you head south below Dong Feng Dong Lu (just across from the bottom of the large public square. A more professional looking shop with lots of stock that you might want to check out. It may have some people who speak at least a little english. But again the whole warranty issue will most likely stay pretty cloudly.

One more suggestion, if you have time, is to seek out some of the ex-pat students who live and study in Kunming who may be more knowledgeable about the camera store situation there (when I lived in Kunming there were a couple of serious photography chaps like me there, might still be). They mostly hang out in the cafes near Yunnan University. Just tell any taxi driver you want to go to the "Yun Da Jiao Dai Suo" which loosely means the Yunnan University Foreign Student Dorm Building". (I spelled the correct Pinyin for you there but perhaps a better way to word it for pronounciation would be "Yoon Daa Gee-Ow Die Sue-whoa".) Just up and along the small street from the front of the dorm building are 2-3 cafes. Just look for foreigners and ask around.

Dear Richard,

Thank you very much for your replies and sorry it took some time to answer. We tried the two shops you suggested, indeed these were the two that looked most trustworthy, and several other shops, including one in a French department store, but in the end we didn't buy a camera in Kunming, because none of the shops could provide an English-language manual. About the warranty we didn't even enquire, because with only a Chinese manual we would be lost, so we decided in the end to wait until Bangkok.

We used the shops you mentioned though to do some research on different models, what they look like, how big the lenses are, etc. so it wasn't useless in the end.

Thanks again for your very quick response, we didn't really expect experts on Kunming on photo.net!

Best wishes,

Arjen and Edith