After Wuxi, we boarded our new bus to head to Suzhou, our next overnight, passing a coal fired power station on the way. Another, in the distance, prompted the obvious question: "how well is China doing in combating air pollution?"
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Coal fired power station Suzhou, Jiangsu province.
Our guide's response was generic, not to say evasive, so I looked it up.
China is currently the world's biggest emitter, accounting for some 30 per cent of global carbon emissions, but a report by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) found that in the year to May 2025, China's CO2 emissions dropped 1.6 per cent and may have peaked due to a massive increase in renewables. China now has by far the world's largest wind turbine and PV solar capacity. The principal driver is not climate change but the urgent need to clean up the air in major Chinese cities (see Beijing above).
The electricity grid in China is also in the process of a massive expansion. Back in 2019 they completed the world’s longest, 3,293 km (2,046 miles), and most powerful ultrahigh-voltage (UHV) power line. The Xinjiang-Anhui UHV power line is a 1,100 kilovolt direct-current (DC) line, carrying energy from solar and wind collectors in the far northwest to the populous southeast, near Shanghai.
According to the NY Times: "China already consumes twice as much electricity as the United States... The most recent public Chinese data, from the end of 2024, showed 19 lines transmitting power at 800 kilovolts. Another 22 lines operated at 1,000 kilovolts... By 2050, China plans to triple its count of ultrahigh-voltage routes."
In Suzhou we would go for a boat-ride on the afore mentioned ancient Grand Canal (that actually runs all the way from Beijing to Hangzhou: 1,776 km).
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Top: The Grand Canal in Suzhou
Bottom: Our hotel room in Suzhou and the view from the balcony
there was also a large and well-appointed bathroom - as was the case throughout this trip
We would also be taken to see the Ancient Lingering Garden.
The Lingering Garden is a classical Chinese garden and because it was pre-1949, was almost destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. But modern China now celebrates its long and illustrious history. Originally built in 1593 during the Ming Dynasty and later renamed in the Qing Dynasty, this UNESCO World Heritage Site is considered one of the four most famous gardens of China. There used to be several more in Suzhou, built by wealthy families in competition with each other. This garden is celebrated for: "its superb handling of architectural space and spatial relations, offering a rich and complex viewing experience through its various sections and features like courtyards, halls, and natural elements and is famous for its artistic use of natural stones from Taihu Lake in its design." I was particularly taken with the Penjing area, learning that although Bonsai is the Japanese word we would use, the art of growing these miniature trees originates in ancient China, where it is called Penjing.
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Not Japan - China. The Lingering Garden (Liú Yuán) in Suzhou
and an intricately carved wooden panel with a detailed depiction of Garden
The garden is now one of the top things to see in Suzhou - according to Trip Adviser
As the following image, from Google Maps, demonstrates, China has a vast network of expressways (typically 8 lanes 120 km/h limit) but traffic congestion is a problem on some routes, so our bus driver often chose a less direct route, particularly in the suburbs or when taking us to a point of interest, like the silk factory or tea plantation.
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Map of the region - 300 km around Shanghai.
Wuxi (top centre) is 150 km from Shanghai and around 2 hours away by road
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Above: The silk factory- memories of childhood and growing silk worms - all those cocoons and miles of silk thread.
Below: Highway service centre Chinese style. Huge toilets with equal numbers of western and squat cubicles.
Banks of charging stations in the car park (many more than in the photo).
As I have previously mentioned, the hotels on this trip were generally four star but they were well out of the larger cities. This meant that we spent a considerable time travelling through the suburbs in our bus.
Tea Plantation
Now we were off to Shanghai but on the way, we would be taken, on a wide diversion, to a tea plantation, near Hangzhou, where we would be exhorted to purchase some very expensive tea. Tea is native to China and has been drunk here for thousands of years and from here it made its way to Japan and India. Unlike the hand-picked tea plantations we visited in Sri Lanka, this tea is machine harvested, as we have also seen in Japan. But its popularity worldwide is largely due to the British East India Company. I was a bit cautious about the price, so during the presentation, that involved a bit of chemistry to demonstrate the efficacy of tea in combating noxious elements, I checked the price of both green and black tea in Australia. This dried leaf (fermented or not) was ten times the market price.
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Top and centre-left: The tea stop
Centre-right and bottom: Many hours spent on the bus
Note the ubiquitous parks; construction cranes; and rail viaducts