Survived my first week in Suzhou....my initial thoughts

4) you can using sort of tool to across GFW , msg me I'll show you how to visit Youtube and Facebook.

Hi Larry, just wondering if you are just visiting or are planning to work there. I'm headed that way in a week. I appreciate your post about your initial thoughts about SZ.

yunal wrote:

Hi Larry, just wondering if you are just visiting or are planning to work there. I'm headed that way in a week. I appreciate your post about your initial thoughts about SZ.

I'm actually working here in Suzhou, SIP to be exact. Some updates about my Suzhou/China experience:

1) I've moved out of the hotel and to my apartment.
2) I'm now riding the bus instead of the taxi.
3) I haven't picked up much on the language. Mandarin is quite difficult to learn if you don't have the time.
4) I've been out of the loop in news and world events ever since I moved out of the hotel. All I get on my TV is local Suzhou news. I didn't bother to get cable TV since they're still in Chinese language.

Hi Larry,
I'm from the UK and have lived in Suzhou for 5 years.
There is a shop on Jinji Hu Rd called Summit. It sells western food at over inflated prices but there is a free magazine in there called 'Open'. It has a map and lists of shops, restaurants and bars in English and also in Chinese. It's good for showing your local friendly taxi driver.
You can easily get Satellite TV in english, I have 30 channels of the shite. Regarding facebook etc, you'll need to buy a VPN. A good one is about 1000rmb per year. There's plenty available on-line and cheaper.
Regarding the language, you'll pick it up in time! Good luck.

One more thought.....when you get on Facebook, connect to suzhouexpats. We're all on there, great if you want any questions answered plus there are a lot of events advertised, especially if you're into music and the like!
suzhoupengyou.com is also good.

thank you for the link.

Rich Moreton wrote:

One more thought.....when you get on Facebook, connect to suzhouexpats. We're all on there, great if you want any questions answered plus there are a lot of events advertised, especially if you're into music and the like!
suzhoupengyou.com is also good.

Larry, iŽm sure uŽll survived:)

I know that you can get Dish network here in Suzhou, it'll cost you around 2000RMB/year. They have plenty of foreign(English) channels, but the sad thing is they DON'T have English sub-title.