I can point out some major downsides for expats who live in Nanjing/Suzhou/Wuxi.
1 You can not visit global sites such as facebook, youtube, instagram, google maps directly as all of them are blocked here. You need a stable VPN to make it work.
2 Banking could be very troublesome for foreigners. Lots of red tapes can drive you crazy. You need to fill out a lot of forms to get a debit card. Also they probably ask quite some questions when you do international transfers. Apart from this, it is not easy to communicate with the bank teller since most of them do not speak good English. I saw some expats accompanied by a translator in the bank. However, this is a typical downside of living in most of countries as an expat. I heard it can take an expat 6 months to get a debit card in France/Norway.
3 Less exciting night life and international restaurants. compared with shanghai.
4 One of my slaves living in Nanjing told me it is very inconvenient for people who have food allergies since restaurants do not list ingredients of the dish. Each time he has to ask waiter for ingredients since he has a lot of allergies. People here do not have many allergies compared with people in USA/Canada. I know quite many from USA/Canada who are allergic to nuts.
