I'm a student at Shanghai Normal University, and one thing that's a huge disappointment about this school is being able to get online. New students have to wait weeks before getting their student IDs , which is needed to get online. There are internet bars, but the ones nearby here are all freak-shows.

If I'm ever in a similar situation as I am now (unable to use the internet properly for weeks), I'd like to know if I can temporarily suspend my account, and if so, what I have to do to suspend it

All you do is cancel your subscription. Once the time you've paid for runs out, you can study everything you've added but can no longer add new items. If you are referring to somehow suspending your account so that nothing gets added to your list of items due, I don't think there is a way to do that short of the skritter gods intervening on your behalf.

Go to your nearest China Telecom and get yourself a 3G dongle, and get online that way. They're not that expensive.