Wang Jingli

wangjingli0715@163.com

SHENZHEN has reached its target of having more than 1,000 parks by 2020 ahead of schedule. As of September, the city has had 1,090 parks covering a total area of 39,320 hectares, excluding those in Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone that is 110 kilometers east of Shenzhen.

It was released by Yang Lei, vice head of the city’s urban administration and law enforcement bureau, at a news conference held yesterday at the Civic Center in Futian District.

The 1,090 parks are spread across the city’s nearly 2,000 square kilometers of land. Among them, 118 are located in Futian District, 88 in Luohu, 47 in Yantian, 98 in Nanshan (including three in Qianhai), 180 in Bao’an, 216 in Longgang, 125 in Longhua, 46 in Pingshan, 171 in Guangming and 42 in Dapeng, 30 of which are cross-district parks.

Parks are basically divided into three categories, namely nature parks, city parks and residential community parks.

Residents can reach a community park within 500 meters of any residence in the city, a city park within 2 kilometers and a nature park within 5 kilometers, according to the press conference.

The number of community parks in the city has reached 905, accounting for more than 80 percent of the total parks. In order to ensure these parks are places featuring co-construction, co-governance and a shared environment, a campaign has been launched recently to encourage residents to create community gardens by using green areas near their communities and to provide daily care for the gardens.

Additionally, the city will promote hand-built trails in nature parks in order to reduce potential negative impacts on the environment.

The construction project of the city’s first hand-built footpath was launched in Meilin Park in Futian District.

Projects like this will be spread to more parks in the future, according to Wu Suhua, head of the garden department of the urban administration and law enforcement bureau.

A 45-meter drawing of parks in Shenzhen is being exhibited in the west hall of the Civic Center’s B section until Sept. 30.

At the same time, there are 19 new parks under construction, and nine renovated parks have officially reopened to the public. Next, Shenzhen aims to have 1,500 parks by 2035.