The actual city of Suzhou itself is pretty much nothing more than an entity that thrives off of tourism--and if you're an obvious foreigner (or even a mere out of towner), then most likely you'll be perceived daily as a walking wallet with everybody in town trying take a bite out of it...that said, it does have some interesting sights to see, but they do somewhat lose their effect when you're squished up against 5 million other tourists at the same time.
Depending on how much you understand about chinese culture/society will probably make all the difference in how you view your time there. Suzhou may very well seem like an insane asylum upon first arrival, but depending on the length of your stay, your view may change drastically once you accustom yourself to living there.
I'd also check out the Mainland China subforum at SSC as it is loads more active than the one here, and you'll probably be able to communicate with some actual Suzhou/Jiangsu residents.
Here are a few pics I took last spring:
and an extremely fogged-in overview of most of the city----------->:
ps, pbase has been on crack today, you might have to refresh, right click 'show image' or come back later if you're getting red-x's.
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