New urban grove to open in downtown Beijing

BEIJING - A new urban grove in downtown Beijing will open to the public ahead of the National Day on Oct 1, according to the government of Beijing's Xicheng district.

Located in the Xidan business district of Beijing, the piece of green covers 6,000 square meters and consists of 120 arbors, 30 shrubs and about 270,000 pots of flowers.

The new green will be one of the nearest urban groves to the Tiananmen Square, said a greening official of the Xicheng government.

Landscape designers involved in the project said they chose Beijing's local plants over exotic species, focusing on evoking a sense of wildness in the shopping district.

An expansion project will start after the opening of the grove. It is expected to be completed next year and bring the total area of the green to over 11,000 square meters.