Another foreigner who has noticed positive changes in the city is Paul Zanetti, a Frenchman who now works as an internal training consultant for a number of firms in the city, including Solvay, a world-leading Belgian chemical company.

Upon graduating with a degree in economics and management, Paul Zanetti decided to move to China to teach English and wound up living in Shenyang in Liaoning province.

After a short stint in the country, Zanetti moved back to his home nation of France, where he lived and worked in Paris for a few years. But he soon noticed a difference in working environments between the two countries, where he felt that there were more opportunities to progress in China by working hard. "I didn't like the life in Paris. I just couldn't see myself doing well there in 20 years," said Zanetti.

When he heard of a job opening in Zhangjiagang from his father, Zanetti entertained the thought once again of returning to China to work, and, after sending his CV, landed the job.

"Since I used to live in Shenyang, my first impression [of Zhangjiagang] was how clean it was," said Zanetti. "It has a very peaceful town feeling here; that's something that I like. I drive to work every day and there are traffic jams, but you only have to wait for a few minutes. Living in Paris, I used to yell when I was driving and now I don't have that anger. It's great to be able to go home and already feel relaxed," he added.

"People are quite nice here and it has that community feel," said Zanetti.

One change that Zanetti has noticed in his job is the standard of education of new talent coming into the city. "Within the chemical companies here, the level of education has risen quite a lot. Now, the minimum requirement for an engineering job is either a comprehensive engineering background or a masters degree," said Zanetti.

It is this change in education standards that Zanetti's wife, Yan Tang, - whom he met at his work and is local to Zhangjiagang - thinks is bringing fresh perspectives to the city.

"More people are coming into the city from outside and bringing a different mindset. Traditionally, people are not very open minded here and in the past many people rarely left the province but people who have lived and studied in different places are slowly changing that," said Tang, who herself studied in Australia for a number of years.