The Chinese People:

Suzhou is a city of about 6 million people, though it is quite smaller than Toronto. The streets are crowded and everywhere is loud. The dialect of Chinese that is spoken in Suzhou is Mandarin. It is a failry difficult language, because 1 word can mean many different things depending on how you say it. Though I can say several words (hello, goodbye, thank you, excuse me/sorry, I don't understand, how much is it) I am no where near to being able to communicate in Mandarin. Lucky for me, you can ususally find someone where you are that speaks English. The younger generation are taking it in school, so if you see someone under 30 chances are they speak alittle English. The older generation has learned some English on their own, depending on what they need to survive. Many shop keepers can tell you English prices, can say 'good deal', 'or beautiful', while every now and then you meet someone older who is in business and so speaks English almost fluently.

People are very friendly here. This is an older lady who lives in our laneway. If you say 'ni hao' (hello) to her on your way by, her entire face lights up in a grin and she begins to wave frantically.
Many people do get a kick out of Westerners speaking Chinese, but they seem to enjoy the attempt and are very patient in trying to understand us.

There is not a typical type of home is Suzhou. In our laneway there are many homes. They are mostly quite small (usually 8 feet by about 5 feet). This one room tends to have a bed, a chair and maybe a t.v. The houses in our laneway do not seem to have bathrooms; there is a public facility in the laneway which can be used. There are others who live in apartment buildings. These buildings are usually 5 stories and have barred windows and glass along the top of the walls for security purposes. Inside these homes it is said they are quite nice, but from the outside they are below any Canadian standard.


The traffic is one of the worst things to try to adapt to. There are many cars on the road, however there are many more motor bikes as well. Pedestrians, cyclists and drivers do not seem to abide by any of the set rules for using the road (maybe there are no rules). This is a picture of a typical intersection. It is morning rush hour so it is a little bit extreme, but not much. Cars go in all directions and bikes and pedestrians fit in where they can. Most people obey red lights, but that is about all. My rule: if a car is coming your way, MOVE...if a bike is, try to walk fast, because at least a bike will have the ability to move around you quite easily. Being from Toronto I am used to the amount of traffic, so I wasn't as scared as some of the other people here, but it is still something to get used to.

There are a lot of things to get used to. China is so different from Canada, but it is interesting and new and for that I am still enjoying it.