According to the city’s development and reform commission thirty more parks will be built on the outskirts of Beijing by 2008 as part of a green belt construction plan. The new parks, with a combined space of 1,340 hectares, will be built every three kilometers along the northeast section of the 5th Ring Road and the southwest section of the 4th Ring Road.

A spokesman for the commission said. ‘We plan to set up another 30 parks by 2008. By then, these parks in the city will make up more than 4,000 hectares.’

Adding that the parks on the outskirts will have more green areas with fewer entertainment facilities he promised the parks will not charge an entrance fee. These parks will come from the urban forestation division. Twenty of the new parks will be in the city proper covering a total 100 hectares. The remaining parks will be in the suburbs and total about 667 hectares. All part of China’s promised ‘Green Olympics’.

Lian Guozhao, chief of the bureau’s urban forestation division, said, ‘The capital city has made it a goal to create a situation in which every citizen is never more than 500 meters from a city park by 2010. In order to achieve this goal, Beijing will be building 10 to 20 new city parks every year from now on.’

The new parks will be planned with conservation in mind. For example, Rainwater Park being built in Changping District will feature a special system of rainwater collection and recirculation. The system will supply water to a musical fountain, park toilets and cleaning facilities.

‘There will be no artificial lakes and less garden sculptures, but more plants. More than 70% of the plants should be tall trees,’ said Lan Bingcai, another bureau official.

Source: China Daily