Suzhou’s SIP area is saturated with foreigners and things foreigners like (good/diverse selection of restaurants, decent shopping, grocery stores with a wide selection of goods, etc.)

I’ve not been to Korea, but am a little surprised to hear it’s so xenophobic and racist. There’s no shortage of either in China, but I can’t say which place is worse.

Which city is more foreigner-friendly? I taught in Korea for a few years and got tired of dealing with the xenophobia and racism there.  I’m sure that Suzhou and Dalian will be friendlier than any city in Korea, so I probably can’t lose.  But I’d appreciate any thoughts you have on the matter.  Thanks!

AS far as culture goes, Dalian would really benefit from a “Bookworm”. You got any guanxi with the Bookworm owner? Tell him if he’d be willing to start one up in Dalian then I’d be ready to run it

Oh, and for me one of the big things about Dalian food is that there’s so much great and reasonably priced Korean and Japanese grub around.

This means it’s pretty self contained (airport, Metro, Ikea, hotels, general conveniences), but it also means it’s quite isolated from local competition and rests on it’s laurels quite a bit.

chriswaugh_bj: Pollution is something Dalian has been quite famous for lacking (less the lack of industry, more the strong wind blowing it away). Over the past few years other cities in China have made efforts to reduce their levels of pollution, the opposite has been true in Dalian which again has rested on it’s laurels: pollution over summer 2008 hit levels greater than Beijing and nearby notoriously dirty Shenyang several times – when there’s no wind Dalian does get quite dirty these days. See http://www.daliandalian.com/blog/slipping-on-grease-street-hoping-for-wind-to-blow-it-away