Before you start

Passport, and usually a residence permit or valid visa
A Suzhou address for broadband
An unlocked handset
A payment method for top-ups

Step-by-step

1
Get the SIM on day one
Any China Mobile, Unicom or Telecom shop issues one against your passport under real-name registration. Prepaid data plans are cheap. Do this before the bank and before flat viewings.
In personWho: YouDay 1
2
Register it in your own name, not the company's
An employer-registered number takes your bank verification and payment wallets with it when you change jobs. One extra shop visit removes the whole problem.
In personWho: You
3
Order broadband and check the building first
Chinese fibre is fast and cheap; installation depends on the building's wiring and landlord cooperation. Taking over an existing live line is far quicker than a new install — ask at the viewing. Park compounds are generally well wired.
In personWho: You1–2 weeks
4
Ask your employer how it connects to the parent company's systems
For a German or Japanese manufacturer, the ERP, PLM and quality systems that run the plant sit abroad. Every multinational here has solved this and the answer is a concrete corporate arrangement rather than a personal improvisation. Ask what it covers and whether it extends to your laptop at home.
Via employerWho: YouBefore accepting
5
Sort out access to personal accounts before you fly
Email, password manager, authenticator, banking. Set the arrangement up and test it while you still have unrestricted access.
OnlineWho: YouBefore departure
6
Install the apps the city runs on
WeChat for social and much that is official, Alipay for payments and city services, Amap or Baidu Maps for navigation, DiDi for taxis, Meituan and Ele.me for delivery. Google Maps does not work in mainland China.
Mobile appWho: YouWeek 1

Documents you’ll need

Passport
Residence permit or valid visa
Suzhou address for broadband
Payment method for top-ups

Things most newcomers don’t know

In a multinational manufacturing city, connectivity is a corporate arrangement rather than a personal one.

Suzhou's foreign employment is concentrated in plants and R&D centres whose ERP, PLM, CAD and quality systems live on the parent company's network abroad. Every established multinational here has a corporate solution for reaching them, because the plant cannot run otherwise. That makes the question easy to ask at offer stage and easy for HR to answer — and the answer tells you whether the arrangement extends beyond the office to your laptop at home, which is the part that affects your life.

Source: community-reported

The Chinese phone number is the root of your identity, and losing it is expensive.

Real-name registration binds the number to your passport, and from there it becomes the verification anchor for your bank, Alipay, WeChat Pay, hospital bookings, delivery apps and often your compound's door access. Re-establishing it after a lapse means redoing the registration and re-verifying every downstream service. Keep it topped up through long absences.

Source: Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

WeChat is how the Park actually communicates.

Suzhou Industrial Park's compounds, schools, clinics and community groups all run on WeChat, and with a foreign community that is large but dispersed across compounds, the groups are the substitute for the commercial expat infrastructure that Shanghai has. Set the account up before arrival if possible — verification sometimes needs an existing user to vouch for you.

Source: community-reported

Google Maps does not work here, which matters in a city with a medieval street plan.

China mandates a coordinate offset on published mapping data and Google's mainland base data is poor and misaligned. Amap and Baidu Maps are accurate and integrate with the metro and DiDi. In Suzhou's old town, where the street grid is Song-dynasty and the lanes are narrow and named rather than numbered, an accurate map is not optional.

Source: community-reported

Common mistakes to avoid

Letting the employer register your SIM in the company's name.
Accepting a role at a multinational plant without asking how its foreign systems are reached.
Leaving two-factor authentication on a home number you then let lapse.
Signing a broadband contract without checking for an existing live line.
Relying on Google Maps in an old town with a thousand-year-old street plan.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.