An Expat In Suzhou: 3 years in Heaven

Suzhou, Jiangsu, CN

April 17, 2019 by Greg

Where to begin, the food, the people, the gardens, or the mix of traditional and modern? Suzhou is my favorite city in the world. Hands down. I spent three years from 2012-2015 living in this wonderful city to say for sure that of all the cities I have lived in, Suzhou takes the prize. Now you may say but Greg, you haven't been everywhere, or Greg why, what makes Suzhou so special. Everyone has that one city that just clicks with their personality. For me, I love being next to water, Suzhou has canals everywhere and it has two giant lakes on the east and west end of the city. To be honest though I think that the reason I love it so much is because my third day living here, my neighbor took me for a bike ride where we rode from 9am to 10pm making stops at TaiHu, eating lunch in the hills, and eventually making our way into SIP (Suzhou Industrial Park). This was the first time I truly got to enjoy a bike friendly city, and being able to swerve in and out of the many small alleys into major streets was a thrill I had not felt before. It's memories like this that makes me feel so close to Suzhou.

I like to break Suzhou up into 3 areas, SIP, SND(Suzhou New District), and Old Downtown. SIP was built with a partnership between the Singapore government and is where most of the Expats lived, I didn't, but most did. Old Downtown is where the traditional architecture of Suzhou lives, it consists of Suzhou University, PingJian Lu, GuanQian Jie, ShanTong Jie and relics of the past. SND is where I lived, on the far west of town, closer to Taihu than JinJi Hu. At the time I lived there SND was trying to become a nice modern SIP, last year when I went back to visit, that dream has now been realized. All three areas have their own unique personalities about them. One is not better than the other, it just comes down to personal preference and for me I would love to live in one of those ancient houses in Old Downtown.

Sights

PingJiang Lu

PingJiang Lu is a historic old street located in the middle of the city almost across the street from the famous Suzhou University. You can start from many locations but I always start by entering from GanJiang Lu. It's over 5,000 feet long and is situated right up against a lovely canal. As you walk through down the road you will encounter many different types of street food, restaurants, and gift shops.While it's certainly become more toursity it's a certainly a sight to see. Just keep in mind the date when you go as during National Holidays this street will be full of people enjoying a stroll through the Old Town. There was a couple places I would frequent while living here down on PingJiang Lu. One was called Up Down If（上下如）. This was a cozy little restaurant, bar, hookah lounge that had a wonderful outdoor patio. The patio had these rooms off to the side of the patio with pillows where I would go to lie down, read a book, do some writing, and smoke some Hookah. I never ordered the food, but I would try some of their Baijiu mixed drinks or whatever beer they had in stock from PandaBar. This place is located right at the end of the first half of PingJiang Lu before you cross the street, across from the canal. The second place I would frequent was a bit further down near the end of PingJiang Lu. This was a nice tea and waffle house. The waffles were always made fresh, and the tea was locally sourced. It was run by some college students from Suzhou University. After a long walk it was were I always chose to end the trip. I highly recommend bringing your camera as their are many great spots for some solid photos.

Rating: 5/10