There are many nice places to live in Wuxi. Depending on your life style, you can live downtown close to the hustle and bustle of the city center, choose a house next to Lake Tai Hu or an apartment / town house in an expat or Chinese residential complex.

Where you live is really up to you, your budget and lifestyle. You can live like a modern day prince or exist in a run down, dirty, smelly hole. What is true is that the more comfortable your living situation, the more likely it is that you will enjoy living in Wuxi.

There are some apartment blocks or neighborhoods in which a foreign resident cannot live. In the past expats were restricted to a number of high rent buildings. Today there is a far wider selection of apartments.

The reason some buildings are barred from accepting foreigners vary. In some cases the building is close to or facing a sensitive government building. In others, the developer never applied for permission.
The fact that a building or residential complex is not open does not in any way mean that you can not live there. All you need do is arrange a lease through a third party.

If you choose to use a third party on a lease however you have to accept that renewing your visa in Wuxi may be made more difficult. But with guaxi it may be possible to have your factory or office listed as your official place of residence, leaving you free to live wherever you want. Some of the more popular buildings or communities in which expats currently live are;

• VENICE GARDENS - Lake Tai Hu Area
• YANTZE INTERNATIONAL GARDENS - Wuxi New District
• XINZHOU GARDENS - Wuxi New District
• YING REN MANSIONS - Downtown
• MORESKY BUILDING  - Downtown
• LAKE SIDE DEVELOPMENT  - Lake Tai Hu Area
• ORIENTAL SLIVER MANSIONS - New District
• HENG TONG BUILDING - Downtown

This is not an exclusive list of all the properties in which a foreigner can rent or live.There are literally hundreds of apartments buildings in Wuxi and the majority are open to you. Many more foreigners probably live outside these listed properties, than live in them. This list is only a representative sample of housing options in Wuxi and is intended to help you get familiar with the city.