China Travel Forum

[kathedira]

I am travelling to China in Sept with my boyfriend and am currently
checking out teaching english jobs. We have been
offered a job in a school in Suzhou which looks pretty
good.........

We are just a little bit worried about going to
Suzhou. Being so close to Shanghai, is it a very
expensive city to live in? The other place we were
considering was Chengdu, or somewhere else in the
Sichuan province, which by all accounts sounds
cheaper. Also, would Suzhou in your opinion be a nice
city to settle in for a year?

Any advice or words of wisdom would be much appreciated!

[kamal]

Personally, I would go for the one that has the best living and teaching arrangements. Most of your time in China will be spent in your apartment, teaching the students and otherwise being on campus and close to campus eating. Hopefully your prospective schools will provide access to current foreign teachers who can tell you about the quality of the housing and the students. Having said that, IMO Chengdu would be a better place to live. I've visited both places, and actually enjoyed Suzhou more, but I remember thinking that Chengdu would be a nice place to live. Another thing to think about is ease of travel. With Suzhou you have to go into Shanghai to get to an airport, but Chengdu has an airport not far from the city. Both places have interesting tourist areas around them, though Sichuan's are more scenery-oriented and Suzhou's are more culture-oriented.

What's the other place in Sichuan that you are looking at?

I lived in Hangzhou for two years and enjoyed it, but Hangzhou has a different feel from Suzhou, even though they are just three hours apart. Plus, I had excellent living conditions at my school.
up at 2:40 am because I am addicted to the Tour de France

[paul]

I am teaching in a different city in Jiangsu Province, same city as Suzhou. I wouldn't choose to come back to this area of China. I have visited both Suzhou and Chengdu and really preferred Chengdu. Suzhou was a nice place to visit, but Chengdu felt like a place I'd like to live in. Really though, I don't know Chengdu well. I just know that I don't like the Jiangsu / Shanghai area. I find it too expensive, busy, polluted, compared to other areas of China I have visited.

[Guest]

I agree with kamal

As a city goes, I prefer Chengdu to Suzhou.....as Chengdu has many advantages due to its location and food. Suzhou major advantage is being close to Shanghai....if you feel that you need to be close to Shanghai for some reason.

Suzhou is no more expensive than other large Chinese cities (exc. Beijing and Shanghai) and is comparable to Chengdu.

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