Suzhou Archives - Ryan McLaughlin

World-renowned author visits Humanaught

Alright, Lisa might not be world-renowned yet, but she’s well on her way. And she’s certainly a well-known fixture in the China expat/blogging circle. Perhaps best known as “Other Lisa” in the comments at the Peking Duck (or @otherlisa on Twitter), Lisa’s a long-time blogger (her blog, Paper Tiger Tail is one of my favs., …

November 25, 2009

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Dalian vs. Suzhou

Despite the combative title, it’s rather tough to A-B the two places I’ve spent the most time with in China. They are both supported and mired by a number of attributes that make them both rather unique places to live. Last week Maggie and I grabbed a flight out of PVG and made our annual …

September 30, 2009

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Chinese cities with beautiful women, I seem to know how to pick ’em

Before moving to Dalian in 2005 I spent a good amount of time on the Internet researching the place to see if it was the type of city I’d like to live in. Looking back on what I read, it was the typical “Dalian is a beautiful sea-side city” tourist crap that I would hear …

September 2, 2009

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Suzhou info page finally fleshed + Suzhou district map

In any given week I usually get 2-3 e-mails from people just arrived or arriving in Suzhou. As one of the longest running blogs with a focus on living in Suzhou, Google gives me some love and I in turn do my best to pass it along. In an effort to provide information about the …

August 12, 2009

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Holiday Fu’s Suzhou City Guide

Iain Manley, editor of City Weekend‘s relatively new Holiday Fu, has just put together an excellent city guide for Suzhou. Most all the large travel portals give Suzhou a mention, but Iain’s writeup is full of a wit and insight that makes it a fun and informative read, even for this laowai that has called …

July 20, 2009

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My ChinaTravel.net Feature on Suzhou

A while back I was approached by the fine folks at ChinaTravel.net, an English-language travel site about China that is “editorially independent” but strongly affiliated with Ctrip.com — one of China’s largest online travel booking Web sites. The site’s editors wanted me to put together a summary article on “my Suzhou”, and as of last …

May 4, 2009

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

A recent article in BusinessWeek featured a slideshow displaying 20 of the World’s Worst Places to Work. Unsurprisingly some Chinese cities made the list – surprisingly Suzhou was among them. The list, compiled by New York-based human resources company ORC Worldwide, states the major reasons for giving Suzhou the thumbs down are pollution and a …

March 20, 2009

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Living in China is Easy…

Living in China is easy – or so says the tag line of my new favourite Web site, 5JShop.com. The site offers home delivery of groceries in and around the Jinji Lake/SIP area of Suzhou. Yeah, we just click, click, click and hit send and magically a man appears the next day with our groceries. …

October 30, 2008

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Yoga lessons in Suzhou’s SIP – Maggie gets a Web site

About a week and a half ago Maggie told me she was a bit worried because there was an unprecidented meeting of a large group of “business people” at her yoga studio when she arrived to teach her class. Turns out her fears were not unfounded, and last week the whole business closed (it was …

September 17, 2008

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Emergency Fundraiser BBQ for Xiao Hua

And now news of a barbecue of a different, and much more solemn and purposeful nature – I received word late yesterday from several friends that there will be an emergency fundraising BBQ for their friend Xiao Hua, whom was the victim of a hit and run here in Suzhou on Sunday and is now …

July 4, 2008

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Mailbag: Suzhou, home for cheats and liars?

Being that this blog has been around for a while now, and that it consistently lists at the top of the search results for many things “Suzhou”, I tend to get my fair share of e-mails from readers or random passers-by. Most of these are e-mails from folks moving to Suzhou, or China in general, …

June 22, 2008

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Our Apartment in Suzhou SIP (video/photos)

As I mentioned a couple weeks back, we’re moving to a new apartment at the end of the month. As it is fully furnished (I’ve yet to rent an apartment here that isn’t – though some call into question the definition of “fully”), yesterday we had to head over to the new place and meet …

June 8, 2008

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