Park city concept flourishes in Chengdu

Cyclists ride on a greenway built in Xinjin county, Chengdu. CHINA DAILY

An exhibition hall opened up to the public in Chengdu's Tianfu New Area on April 11, dedicated to the city's bold ambition of becoming a "park city"－an urban planning initiative aimed at creating more green spaces and generating sustainable development.

It features western Sichuan characteristics, and a 4D short film details the overall plan and development of a park city. It describes how people will work, study and live in a park city in the future.

"It's so beautiful, far cozier, more convenient and high-tech than I thought," said a local resident surnamed Zhang.

Chengdu is a city with an area of 14,600 square kilometers. Since the park city initiative began in February 2018, the city has adhered to the policy of ecological protection and green development.

A bird's-eye view of Luxi Wisdom Valley, a core area of Chengdu Science Town. CHINA DAILY

Xinglong Lake in Tianfu New Area has become the largest man-made lake in Chengdu, inviting sightseeing and leisure programs, and assisting in flood prevention and irrigation.

The pleasant environment surrounding the lake has attracted a large number of science and technology enterprises. High-profile professionals from home and abroad have also settled nearby.

"When I first came here, nothing attracted me more than the huge lake in front of me," said Xu Yan, 32, who quit his job in Beijing last year to work in Chengdu Science Town, an industrial park built around the lake.

He said that the beautiful environment and well-balanced work life were the biggest factors in his decision to live in Chengdu.

The office of Xu's company faces Xinglong Lake. Downstairs is a red road around the lake, which is about 9 km long. Xu, also a marathon runner, said he feels a strong sense of happiness working in such an environment.

"The air here is fresh, the scenery is pleasant and the view is boundless, which makes this area an ideal place for running," Xu said.

Xinglong Lake is bustling every weekend. More people regard it as a destination for hanging out.

The pleasant scenery surrounding Xinglong Lake attracts many of tourists. CHINA DAILY

The Xinglong Lake Bookstore, which will open in June, is regarded as one of the most beautiful bookstores in the city because of its design and natural surroundings.

According to Wang Bo, director of the Park City Research Institute in Chengdu, the bookstore built by the lake embodies how the value of ecology can be transformed into cultural value.

Besides the bookstore, a large number of high-quality public service projects such as a tennis center, holiday homes, a park library and a Sichuan cuisine experience center are centered around the lake.

The goal of these projects is to create new scenes for consumption and communication, and promote the commercialization of ecological value.

Luxi Wisdom Valley is another example of Chengdu's park city efforts. As the core area of Chengdu Science Town, it has a planning area of about 98 sq km.

"Here we will not only create a park city scene with birds and flowers, but also a dynamic economic platform with diversified formats," said a government official.

Another official from Chengdu Science Town said in its next step, they will strive to build it into a comprehensive science center, develop the digital economy and help the Tianfu New Area to generate new growth.

A park city is not about building parks in the city, but to explore a new form of city construction, a new path of development to promote the ecological values and generate a new driving force for high-quality development, the official said.

In the past two years, the Chengdu government has made an overall plan for the layouts of industrial production, life and ecology, and has tried to guide urban development from industrial logic to human-oriented logic, from production-oriented to human life-oriented, to meet citizens' expectation for a better life.

In December last year, in a report about China's human development released by the United Nations Development Programme, the China Institute for Development Planning at Tsinghua University and the National Information Center, the construction of the Chengdu park city was selected as the most representative case embodying the success of China's urban development.