Essential Mandarin Chinese phrases

Hello. Suzhou dialect is a Wu variety, famously soft and known as 吴侬软语 — 'the gentle speech of Wu'. Mandarin runs everything, but the local speech has real prestige here.

'The Park' — how everyone refers to Suzhou Industrial Park. Saying it marks which half of the city you mean, and often which half of your life.

'The old town' — the moated, canal-laid Song-dynasty grid at the centre, where building heights are capped and the gardens are.

Temporary residence registration at the police station within 24 hours of moving into a private flat. Requested again at every later immigration step.

Residence permit — what actually lets you live here. The visa in your passport is only an entry document.

Provident fund. Suzhou Industrial Park introduced a Singapore-derived version in 1997, and the Park's arrangements still differ from the rest of the city — ask your employer specifically.

Official tax invoice. Needed for rent if you claim the expatriate housing exemption, and for anything you expense.

The classical gardens, nine of which are UNESCO-inscribed. An annual pass costs less than two single tickets and is the best purchase you will make here.

Suzhou storytelling and ballad singing, performed with a pipa in small teahouses. A living tradition, not a museum piece, and free to sit in on in the old town.

'Squirrel mandarin fish' — the signature dish of Suzhou cuisine, which is sweeter and gentler than anything else in China.

Police 110, ambulance 120, fire 119, traffic accidents 122. Four separate lines rather than one emergency number.