China Expat Life

My Favourite (Suzhou) Blogs

It used to be that I’d skim 10-20 blogs a day, with even more sitting in my feed reader should I have the extra time. I love blogs, love blogging and love the China blogsphere. In fact, it was just that love for it all that led me to setup the Hao Hao Report, a …

March 3, 2008
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Lost Laowai author hunt

Hey folks, if you’ve ever considered writing about your experiences in China, or currently write a personal blog and would like to get a bit more exposure, please check out the following: We’re looking for a few good Laowai. As most of you likely know, Lost Laowai is my “other” baby site. It’s one part …

February 23, 2008
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Puppy Power in the PRC Part II

Well, it’s the end of day three with the puppy and I dare say there’s not a place she hasn’t marked with a little bit of puppy love. The physics of a puppy astound me. I swear more comes out of her than goes in. But for every ounce of patience she takes from me, …

February 19, 2008
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Puppy Power in the PRC

It’s somewhat amazing how quickly a relatively calm and orderly life can be turned into a non-stop “no!” shouting, pee cleaning, slobber and hair covered existence. We got a puppy! Maggie and I have long talked about getting a dog, and in the end always had something looming that prevented us (mostly financial or geographical). …

February 18, 2008
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A reminder of the way things were

Maggie returns home today after spending the Spring Festival holidays at her parents’ place up in the North East. For the last nine days I’ve been thrown back into a lifestyle I had nearly forgotten – bachelorhood. Now before images of me out all night sniffin’ coke off the scarred ass of a 50 kuai …

February 14, 2008
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Moving Beyond CCTV9

I wish I could say this post is about how I’ve finally decided to change the channel from CCTV9 and delve deep into the Chinese psyche by watching period-piece soapumentaries about the Tang, Song and Qing dynasties… but it’s not. All this snow and craptastic weather has left Suzhou a pretty uninviting place for anyone …

February 2, 2008
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Snow in Suzhou

Having a blog that has first page Google rankings for any number of keyword searches about Suzhou, I tend to get a lot of traffic from people looking for information about the place, generally because they’re living, visiting or moving here. When questioned, I’m always quick to mention how cool a place Suzhou is for …

January 15, 2008
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Almost Famous

So I’m hearing rumours that this here blog got itself mentioned in (the Friday edition of?) the China Daily. I’ve not read the article, and so have idea in what light things were portrayed or why it was mentioned even, but huh, neat. And here I was chuffed that my hometown paper posted the letter …

January 12, 2008
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What Neverbeens don’t know about China

Well, I’ve returned to my chilly Suzhou apartment after a three week refresher in the “real world” and am slowly getting back into the routine of expat life in China. Though I still plan to post my wife Maggie’s impressions of Canada, that involves sorting photos and recollecting exactly what we did while away – …

January 6, 2008
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Heading home for the holidays

Well folks, as of next writing I’ll be back in the land of William Lyon Mackenzie King, trying to explain to Maggie why most of us Canucks go by two names, and he went by four. Alright, I’ll spare her the Canadian politics – I don’t want to inundate her with too much too fast, …

December 14, 2007
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Suzhou makes list of most expensive cities

According to a survey by ECA International Suzhou has been ranked as the 20th most costly Asian city for expats to live in. The list; which puts Suzhou slightly ahead of Xi’An, Wuhan and Nanjing and behind Dalian, Chengdu and Chongqing; lists both Beijing and Shanghai in the top 10 (#7 and #8 respectively). A …

November 27, 2007
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