(PS if anyone needs an experienced Rails/Java/Python/whatever-you-need-me-to-learn coder and can deal with a 9-12hr time difference, my contact info is in my profile)
The number one rule of advertising is be positive, always.
I am learning Mandarin, albeit in my spare time. My wife speaks it well enough to function.
To the other posters: am definitely planning to visit Dali-- in fact we might end up moving there after a year or so if Kunming proves a bit too much like every other Chinese city (crowded, polluted, charmless).
I visited Suzhou 2 years ago -- very pretty city with many of the older sections in the center of town well-preserved, but they were just building the new subway, and SIP and the surrounding suburbs made it feel like the old ways were quite literally under seige from all sides (literally as well as figuratively).
The real challenge (besides finding work that pays USD and includes health insurance, learning Mandarin, etc.) will be to figure out a way to get Z visas so we can take our cats with us! ;) Will need some kind of nominal Chinese employer.
Re: pointing out a negative-- let's just say that this is a very different audience than any other place I'd be looking for work.
If anyone has specific tips for finding FT remote/telecommute jobs (not oDesk/rentacoder/etc), I'd love to hear them!
I've been in Kunming, I liked it, but it is quite laid back compared to Chongqing or central china. There is no bustle like in other parts of china.
The wife of my friend is a Yi minority from Yunnan, so if your wife would like to live with and talk to some of the original Yi up in the mountains (about 3 or 4 hours from Kunming), I can arrange that for you. The name of the village is something like laomon, but I must be spelling it wrong because I can't find it on google maps.
You can bring pets into China with a normal visa. Get a 6 month business visa, when you are in china you can get a z-visa through local contacts. If you can't you can just go to hong kong after 6 months, step out, renew it and be back in china in one day.