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v 25 20
09
World-renowned author visits Humanaught
Alright, Lisa might not be world-renowned yet, but she’s well on her way. And she’s certainly a well-known fixture in the China expat/blogging circle.
Perhaps best known as “Other Lisa” in the comments at the Peking Duck (or @otherlisa on Twitter), Lisa’s a long-time blogger (her blog, Paper Tiger Tail is one of my favs., she was also a past contributor at the Duck) and has the distinction of having seen a side of China most of us expats have only read about in books.
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p 30 20
09
Dalian vs. Suzhou
Despite the combative title, it’s rather tough to A-B the two places I’ve spent the most time with in China. They are both supported and mired by a number of attributes that make them both rather unique places to live.
Last week Maggie and I grabbed a flight out of PVG and made our annual pre-holiday trip to visit the inlaws and friends in Dalian. That we both work outside the confines of anyone’s schedule but our own, we are fortunate that we can travel when the rest of the country is distractedly focused on tying up loose ends before…
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p 02 20
09
Chinese cities with beautiful women, I seem to know how to pick ‘em
Before moving to Dalian in 2005 I spent a good amount of time on the Internet researching the place to see if it was the type of city I’d like to live in. Looking back on what I read, it was the typical “Dalian is a beautiful sea-side city” tourist crap that I would hear mindlessly repeated to the point of nausea while living there.
What wasn’t mentioned on the Web sites I reviewed, but was added to the rhetoric after I arrived was that Dalian girls are considered some of the most beautiful women in China. I’m betting had…
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g 12 20
09
Suzhou info page finally fleshed + Suzhou district map
In any given week I usually get 2-3 e-mails from people just arrived or arriving in Suzhou. As one of the longest running blogs with a focus on living in Suzhou, Google gives me some love and I in turn do my best to pass it along. In an effort to provide information about the most common questions I’m asked, and to give myself a dumping ground where I can put random Suzhou information, I’ve done up the creatively titled Suzhou Information page.
It’s something I’ve been intending to put together for a couple years now (as the dead-end…
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l 20 20
09
Holiday Fu’s Suzhou City Guide
Iain Manley, editor of City Weekend’s relatively new Holiday Fu, has just put together an excellent city guide for Suzhou. Most all the large travel portals give Suzhou a mention, but Iain’s writeup is full of a wit and insight that makes it a fun and informative read, even for this laowai that has called the place home for three years now.
Locals half-heartedly bemoan the changes prosperity has brought. The city, they say, is irrevocably different. But Suzhou has hung onto its character, and is an excellent place to witness the contrast and clash of new and old in
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y 04 20
09
My ChinaTravel.net Feature on Suzhou
A while back I was approached by the fine folks at ChinaTravel.net, an English-language travel site about China that is “editorially independent” but strongly affiliated with Ctrip.com — one of China’s largest online travel booking Web sites.
The site’s editors wanted me to put together a summary article on “my Suzhou”, and as of last week it was published on the site. For anyone that’s ever asked my opinion about what to see while visiting Suzhou the content will feel familiar, as it generally just rehashes what I’ve suggested to people many many times over the years I’ve…
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r 20 20
09
WTF, Suzhou 14th worst place in the world to work? Sissies!
A recent article in BusinessWeek featured a slideshow displaying 20 of the World’s Worst Places to Work. Unsurprisingly some Chinese cities made the list – surprisingly Suzhou was among them.
The list, compiled by New York-based human resources company ORC Worldwide, states the major reasons for giving Suzhou the thumbs down are pollution and a lack of culture & recreation facilities. Other problems included disease/sanitation, medical facilities, education facilities, and availability of goods and services.
It needs to be asked: has ORC Worldwide ever even been to Suzhou?
Granted, their list was compiled for BusinessWeek and specifically for…
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t 30 20
08
Living in China is Easy…
Living in China is easy – or so says the tag line of my new favourite Web site, 5JShop.com.
The site offers home delivery of groceries in and around the Jinji Lake/SIP area of Suzhou. Yeah, we just click, click, click and hit send and magically a man appears the next day with our groceries. Blows my fucking mind.
Now, I’ve heard of similar services back home, but have had little cause to use them. Shopping in Canada is about as stressful as a yoga class. You show up, listen to a bit of Musak,…
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p 17 20
08
Yoga lessons in Suzhou’s SIP – Maggie gets a Web site
About a week and a half ago Maggie told me she was a bit worried because there was an unprecidented meeting of a large group of “business people” at her yoga studio when she arrived to teach her class.
Turns out her fears were not unfounded, and last week the whole business closed (it was one part yoga studio and one part female beautification factory).
Details of what exactly happened are sketchy, but best I’ve been able to piece together is that about six months ago the owner of the business realized the place was going down hill (the yoga…
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l 04 20
08
Emergency Fundraiser BBQ for Xiao Hua
And now news of a barbecue of a different, and much more solemn and purposeful nature – I received word late yesterday from several friends that there will be an emergency fundraising BBQ for their friend Xiao Hua, whom was the victim of a hit and run here in Suzhou on Sunday and is now in a coma.
The Suzhou Bookworm, which always seems quick to respond with an altruistic heart, is hosting the event. The details from the event page on Facebook:
Dear friends and patrons,
On Sunday July 6th, The Bookworm will be hosting a BBQ dinner
…
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n 22 20
08
Mailbag: Suzhou, home for cheats and liars?
Being that this blog has been around for a while now, and that it consistently lists at the top of the search results for many things “Suzhou”, I tend to get my fair share of e-mails from readers or random passers-by.
Most of these are e-mails from folks moving to Suzhou, or China in general, and are looking for a man-on-the-ground to answer some of the peace of mind questions the guide books don’t give you. I always try to answer these as honestly and as detailed as I can, as I also did this when coming to China and…
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n 08 20
08
Our Apartment in Suzhou SIP (video/photos)
As I mentioned a couple weeks back, we’re moving to a new apartment at the end of the month.
As it is fully furnished (I’ve yet to rent an apartment here that isn’t – though some call into question the definition of “fully”), yesterday we had to head over to the new place and meet with the landlady and realtor to make an itemized list of all the goodies the apartment comes with.
We had been somewhat nonchalant about getting it done, but the realtor impressed upon us the importance, as they’ve had landlords walk out with major appliances…
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y 08 20
08
Suzhou Bookworm’s East & West Music Fest
I swear, this town gets a little bit more livable every day.
I mean, we’ve got an Irish Pub that serves Guinness on tap, we’ve got one, two, three places that I can get a taco, we’ve a cafe/bookshop/lending library loaded to the rafters with English-language books, we’ve got an English-language movie cinema playing Iron Man, and now… well, now..
We’ve got a frigin’ MUSIC FESTIVAL!
This weekend, May 10-11, the aforementioned Bookworm is hosting the East & West Music Fest (has got a nice ring to it eh?). The event will host more…
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r 06 20
08
Bookworm Lit Fest Hits Suzhou
Suzhou’s newest hot spot is undeniably The Bookworm. Part café, part library, part restaurant, part bar and part bookshop; it’s not hard to see why the place has quickly become a refuge for many a Suzhou expat.
On top of its boatload of English-language books, the cozy two-storey canal-side venue now has the distinction of bringing to Suzhou some wonderful international literary talent.
Running from March 2nd to March 19th, the Suzhou Bookworm International Literary Festival is showcasing an impressive list of authors giving readings, and talking about their various works.
Some of the author’s making the…
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r 03 20
08
My Favourite (Suzhou) Blogs
It used to be that I’d skim 10-20 blogs a day, with even more sitting in my feed reader should I have the extra time. I love blogs, love blogging and love the China blogsphere. In fact, it was just that love for it all that led me to setup the Hao Hao Report, a way for the best stories about China to get more exposure.
However, in recent months I’ve been so swamped with other commitments that my blogxpeditions have become fewer and fewer, to the point where I do all I can just to keep all…
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v 27 20
07
Suzhou makes list of most expensive cities
According to a survey by ECA International Suzhou has been ranked as the 20th most costly Asian city for expats to live in.
The list; which puts Suzhou slightly ahead of Xi’An, Wuhan and Nanjing and behind Dalian, Chengdu and Chongqing; lists both Beijing and Shanghai in the top 10 (#7 and #8 respectively).
A lot of friends of mine in China, but outside of Suzhou, are often a bit surprised when I tell them that Suzhou’s got a large expat population. I think because Lonely Planet (erm, rather Rough Guides, now that LP is banned) tends to paint…
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v 06 20
07
English-language yoga lessons in Suzhou
Looking to learn yoga in Suzhou, but not sure where to find a private teacher that can speak English? Well my aspires-to-be-bendy friend, today is your lucky day.
This is a bit of a public service announcement / ad for my lovely wife. As long-time readers may know, Maggie is a yoga instructor/teacher here in Suzhou – by many accounts one of the better ones, and certainly one of the few that has strong English language skills.
Though she is the primary instructor at a local yoga studio in SIP, she’s looking to teach some private lessons.
If you are…
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t 27 20
07
Burger King in Suzhou?
After a night out at the Shamrock, Suzhou’s defacto Irish pub, surrounded by fellow non-Asian faces most of which are rattling on in English, it’s sometimes easy to forget where you are.
This is likely why, while sipping some post-closing brew at a little canal-side gazebo (Suzhou’s cool that way) around the corner that a bit of garbage almost went without notice.
Sitting nearly as unassumingly as myself and my fellow inebriated companions was your everyday, garden-variety fast food take-away cup. However, it was the logo that, again making it closely kindred to us drunk laowai, made it stick out.…
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t 20 20
07
Gettin’ Smashed
As some might remember, I bought an e-bike a few months back.
It’s pretty much replaced taxis as my primary mode of transportation (taxis having replaced buses shortly after I got caught in the rear door pushing my way on an overstuffed bus).
For a city like Suzhou I would even go so far as to saying a bike of some sort is a necessity, as it allows you to boot around all sorts of great back alleys that you’d never bother with using your feet or four wheels.
I had been thinking just the other day how despite…
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t 09 20
07
Wipha Sucked But Krosa Blew
Back a couple weeks I wrote about Typhoon Wipha coming to wipe Suzhou and the rest of China’s eastern seaboard off the map. It failed to do so.
The other day all the reports seemed to indicate Krosa was coming to do the same. Nada. However, what it did do was give Suzhou that long-needed push into Autumn.
I put pants on for the first time in nearly 5 months this morning.
Suzhou’s seasons, or lack of them, is something both greatly interesting and constantly confounding for this Canuck. I just don’t get how a place can go…
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