Category Archives: Suzhou

Anything about Suzhou.

Time To Face The Book

After endless pestering from my friend Sarah, I’ve finally jumped on the Facebook bandwagon. I’m not a huge fan of social networking sites, mostly as I’ve just been over exposed to them. From back in the day when my friends were on Campus Kiss, and then migrated to Friendster and MySpace and now they all …

The First And Last Day of Spring

Alright, it’s been all of five minutes or something since I posted my last entry – but this deserves mention, especially taking into account how much I bitched about the cold. Spring came the other day. It was great. All 24-hours of it. After wearing a coat, hoodie and undershirt last weekend, despite being officially …

The Green Leap Forward

Apparently my little home-away-from-home province of Jiangsu is kickin’ ass in green goals met. Thanks to Jeremiah over at The Duck who led me to this China Dialogue article about Jiangsu province setting a shining example for possibly solutions to China’s massive environmental issues. Jiangsu’s contribution to China’s gross domestic product (GDP) has consistently ranked …

Shan Tang Street – A Walk Through Suzhou’s Past

Getting out and taking photos has been rare for me lately, as has going to see anything worth taking photos of. However, a couple days ago Maggie said she wanted to go to a massive wedding dress district up by Tiger Hill here in Suzhou. Tiger Hill is a rather large temple complex that is …

The Great China Divide: No Heat For You!

I laughed – laughed! – at the poor fools. Images of a crowd of Chinese standing there on the banks of the Yangtse cursing their northern neighbors who sat toasty warm in their centralized heating watching The Best of CCTV. The shivering swarms swearing generational damning profanity while praying the schizo-aircon unit that worked intermittently …

New Year’s And A Few Beers

I spent my second New Year’s Eve in China with good form last night. I’ve mentioned previously that I’ve become a bit of an isolationist in recent months and have rarely ventured out into the Suzhou social scene – quite diametrical from my previous gregariousness. It’s certainly nothing against Suzhou or its nightlife, as it …

A Bit About The Weather

One of the big reasons that, after a year and a half there, I moved south from Dalian was I feared battling through another northeastern winter. But, but, I'm Canadian… there's three things we Canucks all know: hockey, winter and how to make love in a canoe. Well folks, sorry to break the stereotype, but …

Cheques My Ass Can’t Cash

I can’t win. I really can’t. I finally get my first pay cheque in like three months and decide I want to take the missus out to celebrate her recently landing of a yoga instructor job. I’ve been dying to check out this Spanish restaurant, El Meson de Carmen, that is not too far away …

Maple Bridge | 枫桥

Continuing our foray into Suzhou’s tourist spots, we headed to 枫桥 (Maple Bridge – man do I miss syrup) recently and were pleasantly surprised. Generally speaking, I’m not impressed by Chinese tourist spots, yet lately I’ve not been let down – perhaps I’m just tuning out the stuff about them that previously ruined the experience …