Experience in Suzhou -- 2There’s a well-known saying – 上有天堂，下有苏杭 – where 苏 refers to the 苏in 苏州 and 杭 refers to the 杭in 杭州. While I haven’t been to Hangzhou, I must say Suzhou does live up to its name of being a heaven on earth. This is not a place you will immediately fall in love with, but it certainly grows on you. Before, I’d always thought a vibrant city like Shenzhen would be more fun and interesting and this belief I held throughout my time in Suzhou, right till the very last day. It was only when I reached Shenzhen did I realize how much I miss Suzhou’s character and history.
When Suzhou is mentioned, people think of silk, pearls, 园林 (private gardens), 虎丘 (Huqiu), 寒山寺, the Suzhou Museum, the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake etc. All of these either have their history or are things unique to Suzhou.
Moving onto Shenzhen, what do you think of when someone mentions about the place? Cheap shopping immediately comes to mind. And perhaps a few other places like 莲花山 where Deng Xiaoping’s statue sits atop, 世界之窗, Book City, and an amusement park I forgot the name of. Anything that is truly unique to the place? No. Everywhere looked the same, everywhere just looked like a shopping venue. Even the cab driver and a newly-made friend, Andrew, agreed that Shenzhen is lacking in that aspect because Shenzhen is after all just a piece of reclaimed land that has been developed as a commercial area. People treat the place as one that will offer them a better salary for the same work, a stepping stone to a better future. Few develop a sense of belonging to the place.
Suzhou is also pretty much an immigrant city as many factories are located in the SIP (this is the one Singapore apparently got played out), many workers from the other less prosperous cities come to the SIP to work. So many that the ratio of Suzhou workers to non-Suzhou workers is higher than 1:30 I believe. But the difference is, many do see their future here. They buy houses or hope to. They start families here.
You see, Suzhou is actually a very family-friendly place. I haven't actually seen any of those messy red-light stuff, unlike in Shenzhen and Singapore. Public buses stop operating at 8.30pm in the SIP and at 10pm in the city. So yes they do promote the wise, old saying, ‘Early sleep early rise, makes you healthy, happy, and wise.’ The air, though not as clear as Singapore’s, is still way better than cities like Shanghai and especially Beijing. Landscaping is comparable or even better than Singapore’s. They have specifically set a law that buildings in the city cannot be higher than 4 stories so as to preserve the old city look. And the lights switched on all around the SIP every night, you wonder where they get all their money from. There is even police patrolling and police posts located at traffic junctions. Oh, not forgetting the 科文中心 (Suzhou’s Bird Nest) with the 摩天轮(ferris wheel) in the background. Totally feels like seeing the Esplanade and the flyer, only in China. All in, the SIP is very much like Singapore – safe, accessible, has nice scenery, organized, or maybe even better.
