Comments on: WTF, Suzhou 14th worst place in the world to work? Sissies!

By: Serena_sz99

Serena_sz99 — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 01:55:00 +0000

I don’t believe such praise.

By: Ardi

Ardi — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 06:07:00 +0000

K
<> Information Department on August 30 announced
that the latest world livable cities list, first elected in Melbourne,
Australia, over the past decade to top the list of frequently drop to
third place in Vancouver, Canada. There are eight cities in mainland China list, ranking the best of Beijing’s No. 72, followed by No. 73 Suzhou.

check here: http://www.f-paper.com/?i853073-Latest-world-livable-cities-list-list-Suzhou-Chinas-800-cities-ranked-2

By: Rihann Koekemoer

Rihann Koekemoer — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 23:35:24 +0000

Yes agree, it’s quite a baffling story…The index seems to be biased. What are things you can live with and what not? We live in Suzhou, come from South Africa (Johannesburg)and I can tell you the weather is good over there but that’s about it. Violent crime, drugs, HIV, education are all major issues over there…I’ll rather deal with polluted air than having to fear for my life every time I get into bed or into my car…

By: 长舟丫

长舟丫 — Sun, 10 May 2009 12:41:03 +0000

Good call, this is a major WTF! “Lack of culture & recreation facilities”!? The Suzhou Science and Cultural Arts Center is more “culture & recreation facilities” than you can handle in one go, and that’s just the beginning. And as for air pollution, it’s a bit chokey when it’s in the 30s (Celsius) but visiting Suzhou from Nanjing this spring was literally a breath of fresh air. Weird list.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 01:36:47 +0000

@Marty: I agree. I mean, pollution is definitely there and definitely an issue – no argument from me. However, this is true of *every* 2nd tier or higher city in China, and is much worse in the coal-burning chilliness of the north and north east.

@G: Here’s the thing – lets consider London, Toronto, or any major global city. They all have suburbs, and SIP is most definitely that. It is the wide-street, strip-mall section of town where the houses are comfy but all look the same. That it takes 10-15 minutes (and 15RMB) from my door in the ‘burbs to the cultural hub of the city downtown is an afterthought really. It’s nothing.

Granted, rush hour will make that 10-15 minutes a bit longer, but not by much – certainly not by comparison to living in the suburbs of other major metropolitan areas.

I think it’s tough to compare Chinese cities to Western cities, as they’re just not apples and apples. Taking for example the fact that Suzhou’s population is greater than the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but also understanding it is a “small” city by Chinese standards. It’s just a completely different scale.

However, there are plenty of things to do, and they wont cost you an hour on the TTC or a $45 taxi ride to get to. To me, that makes it very unworthy of the stuff the report claims.

By: G

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 14:16:53 +0000

As I said in my blog, I think that there are some good points made by the good people at Business Week. This city, SIP in particular, is a bit of rough spot for culture and recreation. That being said, the new Cultural Arts Centre is a huge plus, and the Subway coming in will certainly make the cultural heart of the town accessible. As it is right now, the old town is a great source of culture, but SIP, not so much. I think that is certainly going to change drastically in a short amount of time.

That being said, to state a “Lack of cultural and recreational facilities” as a major problem, is probably a bit of an overstatement. I would certainly take a year’s worth of boredom over a day’s worth of malaria any day.

By: Marty

Marty — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 13:02:29 +0000

Having made regular visits to Suzhou over the last two years(about 4 months cumulative) I also find this list very surprising. I’ve never had a problem finding things to do. In terms of pollution I guess I must not be there at the wrong time. I’ve never really noticed the pollution as really bad, but then I live in Chicago and I was LA in the ’80s so my idea of bad pollution is a Stage 2 Smog Alert (no physical activity outside).

By: Kellen

Kellen — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 07:55:19 +0000

you obviously need to give yourself a raise to make up for the terrible conditions under which you’re working.

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:50:15 +0000

As I said on Twitter when I saw this, there was probably little or no groundwork done on this, and they used information that was at least 8 years old (I suspect) when the city did indeed have little in the way of recreational facilities or good restaurants. But, as they really ought to know (as, erm… ‘professionals’), things change very quickly here. As ‘Jakob’ sort of said, to hell with the old media!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Sat, 21 Mar 2009 02:43:38 +0000

@Nicki: But then, that’s peripheral or non-existent for most of the expat managers that move to China. It’s generally a career or monetary move, and has little to do with exploring a different culture.

@Tang Tang: You’re absolutely right! I got so caught up in smacking my forehead about this list in regards to the Chinese cities I totally missed that.

@Tina: I’m also surprised. Obviously this list was first narrowed down to places corporate expats might be “stationed”, and then ranked from there (which is why this list makes it appear that these cities are worse than the dirty little coal towns in Shanxi), but their choices and reasoning just seems … odd.

As for being “clean”, they say the same thing about Dalian – and after having lived there for a couple years, I’m confident in saying it’s not necessarily a “clean and beautiful city”. It does have it’s tidy spots for tourist consumption, but it is loaded (like all dongbei cities) with miles of coal-spitting cheap housing echoing “shou pila-r!”