thesquare.gent

Website positioning

thesquare.gent is a local lifestyle information guide made exclusively for expats moving to Ghent, Belgium. It was founded and is run by expat volunteers already settled in Ghent. Its core mission is to help new arrivals to Ghent adapt to city life quickly, while also helping long-settled expat residents discover under-the-radar local leisure spots and activities.

Core features and content

The website covers every need across the entire relocation process: on one hand, it offers practical settling-in guides for administrative registration, renting, job hunting, language learning and more. On the other, it features lifestyle and leisure content including restaurant recommendations, attraction guides, local events, family-friendly activities and more, all sorted into clear categories for easy searching. The website lets readers subscribe to email updates, and also accepts open content submissions — it welcomes experienced expats to share their own insights, fostering a small, interactive community atmosphere, and content is regularly updated and adjusted based on reader feedback.

Pros and cons

Its strengths are very clear: content creators are themselves expats who have relocated to Ghent, so they fully understand all the pain points new arrivals face, making the information far more practical than generic travel guides. All content is completely free, updated in a timely manner, and the site has strong community interaction. The drawbacks are equally obvious: it only serves the city of Ghent, so its audience is extremely niche. It is run entirely by volunteers, so update frequency is inconsistent, and it only offers content in English, which is not accessible for non-English speakers.

Target audience and access

This website is ideal for all expats planning to move to or who have just moved to Ghent, as well as international exchange students coming to Ghent. It can be accessed directly and normally from China, no VPN is required.