Differences

There are many things that we have had to get used to in moving to Suzhou. I wanted to try to capture some of them before they stop becomming so unusual. So here's a list...

1) the way shops and buildings are clustered - sometimes unusual office like buildings with no obvious entrance are the shopping centres or major areas to congrugate in... they are known as 'community centres' here...

2) the taste of bread... the less said the better. For that matter the taste of most Western foods when you can find them - peanut butter, milk etc... Mind you cooking up a stirfry here tastes so much nicer - maybe its having access to so many authentic asian vegetables...

3) the weird manners of drivers - flicking on and off the high beam lights (on and off about 8 or 9 times in a row)... honking the horn a few times when there are no other cars around - honking for joy??

4) the contrast between slick new estates and buildings - quite tidy and then the older areas where rubbish and rubble (not unlike a war zone in places) lies strewn across the road and inside and outside buildings... people throw everything on the road, footpath, canals and water... but then you get to the new areas and it's immaculate... spitting too - both inside and outside - not so nice....

5) the love of bland food. Now I generally quite like most of the food I've eaten here - it's really nice. But... Chinese people seem to really dislike strong flavours and that includes spicy flavours. A few that I've spoken to hate Thai and Indian food - they can't stand it... whereas they much prefer sweet and sour flavours... And here was me thinking that sweet and sour was just something invented for Western consumption.