Cheap rentals for non-locals

By:  July 18, 2022 Categories: 

Shenqiaocun (沈桥村) on the edge of Suzhou is a little town caught between two highways. I like the scenery, but Eva doesn’t. We ask a guy who walks passed us what life is like: “外地人多，偷东西呀” (Lots of non-local people, steal stuff.)

Lots of the house owners don’t live here anymore and rent their houses to non-locals, who often have food stalls they drive to the city streets in the evening.

Several houses display signs for rental (出租房), with rents somewhere between 200-300 RMB per month (30-45 USD).

Latest

Twenty-three years

Twenty-three years

In June we moved back to the Netherlands, six suitcases across 8000 kilometres, and after a brief spell at my parents’ place, we moved into our own home. This second move also involved putting down carpet, curtains, buying appliances and furniture — so that our new garage quickly filled with cardboard boxes and other packaging […]
August 29, 2026
Searching for meadows

Searching for meadows

Our new home in the Netherlands sits in a mundane residential area full of young families like ours. The street name comes from made (‘meadow’), still referring to a field that once lay here and now survives only in the name (just how the name Shanghai refers to a river that no longer exists). And […]
August 5, 2026
Degrees of wealth

Degrees of wealth

In eight years of living in China, taxi drivers or older colleagues loved to ask, “Which is better, the Netherlands or China?”, hoping for a single insightful answer that would explain everything. And now, back as a resident in the Netherlands, people ask the mirrored version: do I miss living in China? Neither question is […]
July 11, 2026
Goodbye to Guanyin

Goodbye to Guanyin

It’s a Saturday morning, and we’re in a taxi on the way to the airport. My clothes cling to my body and already reek of sweat, and that’s even before our 12-hour flight has started. Today I woke up at 5:30 to get up early and throw away the last furniture and items we used […]
June 30, 2026