More surprises are still on the way, revealing the behind the scenes team of Shanghai World Expo Cultural Park: Two square kilometers insist on meticulously carving the International Equestrian Center | Shanghai | Square kilometers
In 2017, the World Expo Cultural Park, covering an area of approximately two square kilometers, officially began construction. This is a park and green space that Shanghai has given up 100 billion yuan in economic benefits and exchanged for the core area of the Pujiang shoreline, committed to creating a world-class high-quality shared space.
Now, the initial blueprint has gradually become a reality. In early summer, the World Expo Cultural Park is overgrown with plants and trees, surrounded by mountains and water in the Jiangnan gardens. Compared to 10 years ago, this golden coastline is a different scene, unleashing vibrant vitality. All of this is inseparable from the years of hard work and dedication of the construction and management team of the World Expo Cultural Park after its opening.
High difficulty project integration area
According to the planning plan, the World Expo Cultural Park provides a one-stop experience, where citizens can climb mountains, watch flowers, walk their dogs, listen to operas, and appreciate gardens without leaving the city center. There are also rail transit lines interspersed in it, and green travel is accessible.
This means that the park needs to be equipped with corresponding facilities, and according to the requirements of "a century long plan, a century long masterpiece", the supporting hardware must be of high level and quality. "The construction of the park is very difficult, not only due to its large size, tight construction period, and strict requirements, but also due to the involvement of many parties in the construction, coordination is difficult," said Chen Zhu, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai World Expo Cultural Park Construction Management Co., Ltd.
In June 2017, the construction and management team of the World Expo Cultural Park was officially established as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shanghai Real Estate Group. At the beginning of its establishment, it was put into intensive work in a sprint state. During the construction period in the northern district, the team was located at the command center of Yaolong Road, with inspiring slogans visible everywhere.
Chen Zhu introduced that in order to solve the difficult problems in construction, they introduced a general control and management team for design, construction, investment, and operation. Starting from the overall project, they sorted out a clear sequence, which is to follow the principle of "underground first, above ground, north first, south first, external first, and internal first" to carry out preliminary preparation, land clearance, planning and design, construction and operation management.
In the park, there are reserved venues for the World Expo, the only Jiangnan Forest "Shen Garden" in the city, the cultural landmark Shanghai Grand Opera House, the Shanghai Greenhouse Garden, the World Flower Art Park, the International Equestrian Center, and the Twin Towers, making it a highly challenging engineering integration area.
Among them, the most representative is the Shuangzishan project, which is the first artificially simulated natural mountain forest with a height exceeding 40 meters in China. Project manager Yi Weijun introduced that it is not easy to build a verdant mountain forest on the soft soil foundation in Shanghai. It is not only a landscape, but also equipped with observation decks, parking spaces, distribution rooms, and exhibition halls. Every inch of space is not wasted, and many technical difficulties have been overcome during construction.
In order to overcome unfavorable factors such as the epidemic, extreme high temperatures, and typhoons, the construction and management team organized more than 2700 park builders to participate in the city's major engineering merit competition, ensuring the steady progress of the project. From 2018 to 2020, it was awarded the title of "Excellent Company" in the Shanghai Key Engineering Merit Competition for three consecutive years. In 2021, it was also awarded the honorary title of "Golden Cup Company" in the Shanghai Key Engineering Merit Competition.
Two square kilometers of exquisite craftsmanship
The World Expo Cultural Park has an important focus on "culture". How to interpret the multiculturalism of this city and land well? In addition to the tight schedule, the construction and management team has reserved enough time to start studying and polishing the top-level design plan. In addition to investigating and understanding the design and management concepts of excellent parks, they also invited citizens to provide suggestions and received over 20000 submissions.
Nowadays, some "golden ideas" have become part of the park. Many citizens have suggested retaining the elements of the Shanghai World Expo, so four World Expo venues have been preserved and renovated. "In the planning stage, we decided to make the World Expo culture a part of the park's background, but during the construction process, many related exhibits were actually 'unexpected joy'," said Zhang Feng, the manager of the planning and design department.
The Time Mark Avenue divides the over 400 meter long garden into three parts, telling the history of the land under its feet from the industrial period, the World Expo period, to the World Expo Cultural Park. Zhang Feng introduced that in order to ensure the authenticity and credibility of the displayed history, team members have visited archives and museums multiple times to inquire about historical information and verify the source. Krupp Stainless Steel Company left behind the first roll of steel produced when moving away. After seeing it, the team decided to keep this old object and hand it over to the artist for secondary processing, making it an iconic sculpture representing the era of steel production on the Avenue of Time.
The art installation that best embodies the concept of the World Expo Cultural Park is a sprout grown from the converter, symbolizing the leap from the steel industry to ecological civilization, and this work is not originally planned to showcase sculpture. "This work was created during the World Expo, and we stumbled upon it while browsing through the sculpture catalog of the World Expo. We thought it could interpret the concept of the park very well and specially invited it to the World Expo Cultural Park," said Zhang Feng.
The uniqueness of the World Expo Cultural Park lies in its inclusiveness, where the present, future, and past complement each other. In the two square kilometer park, exquisite craftsmanship is displayed in many architectural installations. The eleven arch bridge, which will be opened to the public in the future, follows the shape of an ancient stone arch bridge and incorporates modern construction techniques. The bridge deck is carved with the "Twelve Flower Gods", and the bridge head and railing pillars are themed around the Shanghai city flower Magnolia.
Fine management optimization services
This year's Yuanxiao (Filled round balls made of glutinous rice-flour for Lantern Festival), the Mantingfang themed light and shadow show was officially opened in Shenyuan Garden, which is the first light and shadow show of classical gardens in Shanghai to create a large-scale immersive national style experience. "After the opening of the North Park area, many ordinary people came to Shenyuan for sightseeing and experience, providing us with many valuable suggestions." Zhou Shuyan, Deputy General Manager of Shanghai Shiyuan Cultural Tourism Development Co., Ltd., said that many people expressed their hope to have more cultural experiences when viewing Jiangnan architecture.
The opinions of the citizens became one of the opportunities for the birth of the Shenyuan Night Light and Shadow Show. In addition to the light show, Shenyuan also incorporates artistic performance forms such as ethnic instrumental music, Chinese opera, and traditional Chinese dance, allowing young artists to perform on site.
The extension of the operation of Shenyuan from daytime to nighttime has become a typical case of optimizing the management of the World Expo Cultural Park. The completion and opening up of the park is only the first step, and how to maintain its long-term attractiveness has been a question that the construction and management team has been pondering and exploring.
Chen Zhu believes that traditional parks are relatively static, and now people have more diverse needs. They hope the parks are beautiful, fun, and rewarding. Therefore, the park explores a more diverse and three-dimensional park experience through digital management and market-oriented operation.
Since the opening of the North District at the end of 2021, the Park Tourist Service Center has added multiple convenient measures and three safe houses; Install speed bumps and speed limit signs in advance on the cycling lane in the rear beach area where accidents are prone to occur; For areas with high demand for tourist parking, staff have conducted on-site surveys and added non motorized vehicle parking areas. More than 500 types of plants have been planted in the northern area of the park, achieving year-round flower and tree viewing. Over 10000 trees have been implanted with chips to achieve precise maintenance. As the first large-scale pet friendly park in the city center of Shanghai, Dog GO Park has a dog toilet and flushing area, and has become a platform for scientific management and care of stray animals. In the future, it will also provide services such as camping, containers, and pet swimming pools.
As of April 30, 2023, the park has received approximately 1.55 million visitors, of which Shenyuan has received approximately 400000 visitors. "By the end of this year, the overall construction of the World Expo Cultural Park will be basically completed, and by 2024, the park will be fully open to the public." Chen Zhu said that this is a new starting point for the construction and management team. In the future, we will continue to improve our fine management capabilities and enhance the comfort of tourists visiting the park.
