Capital's emerald attraction shines on green path ahead

When the Beijing Summer Games opened in the capital in 2008, I wrote about one of the top draws for me that went beyond the sporting events themselves－the Olympic Forest Park.

Twelve years on, the park has indeed proven to be an emerald crowning glory. It has won numerous accolades and acclaim from major urban planners at home and abroad, being lauded as a beacon of the city's green legacy.

The park spreads over 6.8 square kilometers in northern Beijing, making it the largest green space of its kind in Asia. It boasts a wetland of lakes and reed belts, mature pine, juniper and birch zones, and more than 300 other flora varieties carefully picked by park botanists and designers to form habitats consistent with local biodiversity.

Joggers, strollers and families crowd the urban space in all seasons. Bird-watchers even report rare sightings of Siberian chiffchaff, long-tailed tit, streaked reed warbler, red-breasted flycatcher and chaffinch there, on top of the buntings, thrushes and other birds during their migration patterns.

The park is the capital's green lung. It helps generate at least 5,400 metric tons of oxygen annually, achieving a sulfur dioxide absorption rate of more than 30 tons and boosting humidity levels more than one quarter above those in other parts of the city.

During social distancing measures to help stem the COVID-19 outbreak earlier in the year, the forest park became an increasingly important spot for residents to exercise, relax and stay physically and mentally healthy in those trying times.

All these affirm the park's public function for Beijing's residents, visitors and those who look to the capital as a megacity model－which also means that it must continue to offer free entry for users.

The latest development road map for Beijing reflects the city's rising resolve to preserve, protect and grow its environmental assets.

Detailed plans for the core area of Beijing for the 2018-35 period show the ratio of public areas being raised from the current 34.3 percent to 38.4 percent, with considerable priority placed on the city's park heritage. The capital's Chaoyang district alone converted more than 140 hectares of land into green space in the first half of this year, despite COVID-19 disruptions, while work has been completed on six parks covering over 277 hectares and work on another six green spots expedited.

City authorities are now aiming for an urban green proportion of nearly 50 percent within the next two decades.

Beijing's Yanqing district, about 80 km northwest of the urban core area, is already poised to complete a forest park of its own by the end of this year as part of preparations for the hosting of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Mountains make up much of Yanqing, which will be the site of the Alpine skiing, bobsleigh and luge Olympic events. The new park will be integrated into the local landscape and subsequently become a major leisure area for residents and tourists, nurturing more than 22,000 protected flora transplanted from the nearby mountain areas marked as Games venues.

Regular weekend trips to Yanqing, near the planned winter sports locations, are rewarded with the glistening waters of the Guanting reservoir and Yeyahu National Wetland Park, themselves the beneficiaries of major ecological protection and conservation drives. Nearby equestrian clubs at the foot of the mountain range where Olympic ski pistes are being laid out promise to cater to a fast-growing middle class in line with environmentally sustainable recreational demand.

With expanding transportation networks and other improving infrastructure, Yanqing looks set to become just one of the many jewels in Beijing's emerald crown leading the green path ahead.