KNOWN as the Venice of the East, the city of Suzhou impresses visitors with its waterways, classical gardens, historic streets and traditional embroidery art.

But Suzhou has a modern appeal as well and the Suzhou Industrial Park, in a scenic setting, demonstrates the city's eco-friendly business pattern featuring clean, cutting-edge industry. The park itself on Jinji Lake has not robbed the city of any of its beauty and even provides a getaway from crowded urban life. It also includes an attractive, well-integrated residential area.

At the park's Higer Bus Co, one of China's biggest bus manufacturers, visitors see robots and high-technology welders and cutting lasers that replace tiring and potentially dangerous human labor. Robotic arms with a sci-fi feel guarantee both high accuracy and efficiency to ensure product quality.

The company turns out new-energy buses.

The company says it is producing and selling a rapidly increasing number of new-energy buses each year. The government provides economic subsidies for clean-energy, low-emissions vehicles and more customers are keen to buy.

"Last year, we sold 250,000 buses and only 300 of them were new-energy buses," said Ma Rentao, a company general manager. "But from January to April this year, we sold more than 1,000 new-energy buses."

Ma said the company is capable of producing hybrid buses, totally electric buses, hydrogen-fueled buses and vehicles using various alternative fuels.

The hybrid buses can absorb energy from using the brakes and transform it to electric power by storing it in a battery. In this way, buses can save 25-30 percent of fuel consumption and reduce emissions by 30 percent.

A hybrid bus usually sells for 800,000-900,000 yuan, which is more than twice the price of an ordinary bus costing around 400,000 yuan, said Wang Xinliang, a company manager.

"The high cost of new-energy buses forced bus manufacturers to produce more traditional ones, but the government subsidy is turning the tables," Wang said.

The company receives as much as 420,000 yuan (US$68,518) for each new-energy bus, Wang said.

Ma said the company has invested 1.5 billion yuan to establish a major new-energy bus manufacturing base, which is now under construction and is expected to produce more than 10,000 new-energy buses each year.

"There's no doubt that the future of the bus industry in China lies in low-emission and intelligent buses," Ma said.

He illustrated the "intelligent bus" concept by describing the G-BOS System, developed by the company and installed on buses so operators can monitor the bus route, the position of the bus, road conditions and bus emissions, among other things. With the system, the operator can control the engine and even determine whether the driver is showing signs of fatigue.

The bus company is only one example of the Suzhou Industrial Park's innovative and eco-friendly approach to business, leisure and daily life in general.

Neighborhood centers

The park has established neighborhood centers and clubs throughout its entire residential area. They offer one-stop public services for the community. Residents can shop in supermarkets, apply for government services, get medical and health services, take part in sports and cultural events, and even borrow books from a library near their homes.

The centers and clubs are run under a community management system called the Community Work Committee. Unlike Shanghai's traditional neighborhood committees, this Suzhou committee is not subject to economic performance evaluations.

At one of the clubs, the Fangzhou Community Club, residents can meet officials from the neighborhood committee and the industrial park's administrative committee every two months. At the sessions, residents ask questions and raise concerns. At one meeting, they asked officials to change a bus route to make it more convenient.

At the club, 75-year-old Zheng Yuwen teaches Chinese calligraphy to a group of children. He goes there every week, teaching anyone who is interested, free of charge.

Zheng said he had studied and taught calligraphy for 60 years and worked with countless students.

"It makes me very happy to see people learning calligraphy," he said.

According to the Suzhou city government's plan, these neighborhood centers will be located throughout the Suzhou Industrial Park to ensure that residents can walk to the nearest center in 10-15 minutes.

So far there are 10 neighborhood centers and seven community clubs. By next year there will be 10 clubs, complete coverage.

Sustainable development is not limited to the Suzhou Industrial Park and its residential communities.

Located in northeast Suzhou, Pingjiang Road is a renowned tourist attraction and historic street that retains a real-life residential character. More than 8,000 households live in the historic area and seem to live their lives unaffected by visitors.

Small businesses

The stone-paved street dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and retains some old architecture that is still inhabited. The nearby stream is clean and unpolluted.

Bars, restaurants and small businesses are thriving along the ancient street.

"For me, a good development pattern for the historic street is to keep the residents living there, not relocating them," said Chen Jianping, director of a company in charge of Pingjiang Road preservation. "We encourage local residents to open up their own businesses so they can live a better life as they attract more visitors."

He said retaining local residents is crucial to preserving local culture, since too many outsiders who go to Suzhou for business can ruin the cultural environment.

"We are now very careful when choosing vendors who plan to do business here," Chen said, "We favor those who are good at Suzhou's traditional silk and embroidery art, and we will invite more art celebrities to live in the area, together with all the other residents."