Suzhou

Anything about Suzhou.

Announcing: Your China Pal

Hey all, I’m way behind in this announcing stuff, but wanted to wait until we had really got things going before plugging my newest venture on here. A friend of mine here in Suzhou and I have created this business as a way for foreigners visiting China to have access to an English-speaking local Chinese …

June 19, 2007
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Vicarious Suzhou Pubcrawl

Newcomer Suzhou Native (yeah… it’s complicated) Jim Zhou has a pretty good rundown of some of Suzhou’s finer refreshment stands in his most recent post. In a form I’ve not followed in years now, Jim throws himself into the bar scene and we get to watch the results. I was talking to Maggie last night …

June 10, 2007
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No Sham, All Rock: Shamrock Open Mic

Right, so as I mention last post, Suzhou finally has a venue for any wannabe musicians to come out and get heard. I “opened” the Shamrock Open Mic Night last night and it was a modest success. With no advertising, I fully expected to be the only one going up to play – something I …

April 24, 2007
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Open Mic Night In Suzhou

The masochist in me has long been craving the sick-nervous feeling I get when I play in front of an audience. Despite playing for years, I’ve only minimal talent. This, however, doesn’t curb my interest in belting out a few tunes any chance I get. Just before coming to China I was living in the …

April 22, 2007
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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 …

April 9, 2007
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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 …

March 30, 2007
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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 …

March 29, 2007
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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 …

January 7, 2007
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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 …

January 1, 2007
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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 …

November 6, 2006
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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 …

September 30, 2006
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