A NEW project linking five urban parks in Shenzhen has begun construction, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.

Lianhua Hill, Bijia Hill, Central, Meilin Mountain and Yinhu Mountain parks, all located in the middle of the city, will be linked together by repairing ecological breakpoints, improving connections’ existing condition and building slow traffic systems.

Based on Shenzhen’s ecological resources, the city has proposed the planning and construction of park clusters. The project, which has been listed in this year’s top 10 actions of the city’s urban management department, aims to link the parks and nearby green spaces, building park clusters that are easily accessible to one another through slow traffic.

According to the report, construction has already begun in several places. On the south side of the pedestrian bridge in Bijia Hill Park near Sungang West Road, a ground originally covered with weeds has been leveled, and many workers were busy building park lanes, laying water, electricity and other infrastructure equipment.

“The ground will be built into a sports and leisure place,” Li Jie, head of the construction and development department of Shenzhen Park Management Center, told the newspaper. “We hope that this idle place will be restored to a leisurely spot full of vitality,” she said.

At the same time, the ecological restoration construction has also been launched in Central Park’s Area A.

Bijia Hill Park is located in the middle of the park cluster, while Central Park is located at the south end. After these areas are all greened, it will further enrich citizens’ travel experiences.

According to the general plan of the city’s urban management department, the park cluster will be extended to the south, connecting all the green areas along Futian and Shenzhen rivers, forming a corridor linking all the nearby hills, mountains and rivers.

Apart from being a fun place, the park cluster will be built with barrier-free facilities, Li said.

The biggest ecological breakpoint among the parks is located between Meilin Mountain and Yinhu Mountain parks, where the two mountain ecological landscape areas are divided by a highway. In order to repair this ecological breakpoint, Shenzhen is holding an international competition for the conceptual design of Meilin Mountain-Yinhu Mountain ecological corridor to collect excellent design schemes from international designers.

(Windy Shao)