New City; Old City

China and Singapore have partnered to build a brand new city adjacent to the old city of Suzhou. The new city (which you can see pictured here from our hotel window) is comprised of high-rise after high-rise and multi-national factory after multi-national factory. The development actually reminded me of Singapore, because it was crisp, clean, and on a massive scale. It included many public spaces and giant whimsical sculptures. Shopping malls dot the spaces between the buildings with an array of restaurants from Thai to Korean to Japanese to many styles of Chinese. The buildings have been adorned with elaborate light systems to create psychedelic light shows after the sun goes down.

The old city, just a few minutes away is comprised mostly of old brick, stucco and tile-roofed structures. It is surrounded by a centuries-old moat and the government has maintained a ban on high-rises within the old city limits to maintain pristine views from the world famous gardens. Ten years ago, the new city didn't exist.

Suzhou is a smallish city by China standards with "only" 8 million people. In little over a decade, the city has constructed a massive new place for many hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of them to work and live. The construction crew lives on site and works well into the evening every day of the week. This is how the new China has come to be.