The results of the first batch of six environmental ecological parks' "quizzes" have been announced, and the public will serve as examiners. The completion and opening up of these parks is not the end of the ecological landscape | Parks | Citizens

Shanghai is building an ecological park belt around the city on the basis of the green belt around the city.

By 2035, a livable, business friendly, and tourist friendly ecological circle will be basically completed, with the green belt around the city as the framework, connecting 10 wedge-shaped green spaces inward and 17 ecological intervals outward. It will be closely connected with the "Five New Cities" forest ecological park belt around the city.

During the 14th Five Year Plan period, Shanghai will add 36 ecological parks on the green belt around the city, forming a group of ecological parks along with 14 completed and open parks.

At the beginning of this year, the first batch of six "environmental" ecological parks have all been completed and opened up.

Building and opening up is not the end.

On the occasion of the opening of the first batch of "environmental" ecological parks for half a year, the Shanghai Greening and Urban Appearance Department launched a "small examination", which is a satisfaction survey of citizens for these parks. Based on the survey results, timely improvements were made to ensure that the ecological park belt around the city is always recognized, loved, and proud of by citizens as a multifunctional ecological space.

Ye Tianyuan, the second batch of 10 "Huan" ecological parks planned to be built by the end of this year

Keep up with the times and find problems

From September to November 2021, the overall planning of the urban ecological park belt was still in the preparation stage. The Shanghai Greening and Urban Appearance Department launched a "Golden Ideas" solicitation activity, collecting more than 4200 insights from citizens through online and offline channels. Among them, 25 "golden ideas" were adopted in the planning and construction of the first batch of "environmental" ecological parks.

Adopting the suggestion of citizens to locally brighten night lighting without affecting surrounding communities, Meilong Ecological Park has created a "Tree Frog Tribe", providing a suitable place for young people who enjoy night activities such as "Night Running Tribe".

Adopting the suggestion of citizens to increase facilities and recreational areas for different age groups, Chunguang Park has set up children's playgrounds and tent setting areas, added self-service sales services, and added a third bathroom. This age friendly park has become a popular check-in recommendation on social media platforms.

The Chunguang Park, which opened at the beginning of this year, has attractive recreational facilities and children's playground with a sense of design.

The currently open "environmental" ecological park has gathered the wisdom of many citizens and achieved their expectations at that time. However, the public's demand for public services will change with the times, and "golden ideas" will also become outdated, unable to solve new problems and meet new expectations.

Deng Jianping, Director of the Shanghai Municipal Greening and Urban Appearance Bureau, stated that the construction of Shanghai's park city should implement the requirements of people's democracy throughout the entire process, respond to and meet the new expectations of the public for a better ecological environment. Therefore, asking for needs from the people, asking for plans from the people, and asking for benefits from the people cannot be a "gust of wind", but should be normalized.

Recently, the Shanghai Public Green Space Construction Affairs Center conducted a citizen satisfaction survey on the first batch of "environmental" ecological parks, and found many problems that were not discovered during the process of soliciting "golden ideas".

For example, the popularity of "Huanshang" ecological parks has been underestimated, especially Mianqing Park and Jinhai Wetland Park, with an average daily visitor volume of over 1000 and weekends exceeding 5000. This year's "May Day" holiday saw 19507 and 42508 visitors respectively.

The unexpected number of tourists directly tests the pressure resistance of the supporting facilities and services of the "environmental" ecological park, making it easier to expose shortcomings and more efficient in discovering and solving problems. However, this progressive and pragmatic attitude towards park management and operation will never be a product of a "gust of wind" style questioning of the people.

Jinhai Wetland Park

Tailor to local conditions to address weaknesses

Through visiting parks, visiting surrounding communities, and sending questionnaires to residents through WeChat, the Shanghai Public Green Space Construction Affairs Center collected a total of 1515 resident questionnaires.

After cross comparison of survey data, the shortcomings of the six open "environmental" ecological parks are not entirely the same.

For example, in Mianqing Park, 55.94% of visitors are between the ages of 26 and 45, and the characteristics of parent-child travel are more prominent. However, due to the park's distance from surrounding communities, nearly 60% of visitors arrive at the park by self driving. At the same time, 55.45% of respondents believe that the supporting facilities of the park's parking spaces cannot meet actual needs.

At present, only 70-80 cars can be parked at the same time in Mianqing Park

Chinese style gardens in Mianqing Park

The main shortcoming of Meilong Ecological Park at present is not parking spaces, but the need to improve the quantity and quality of sales services, rain shelters, pavilions, and children's playgrounds.

According to a survey, 85.45% of visitors to Meilong Ecological Park are residents of the surrounding area, and 75.12% of residents walk to the park.

The more convenient way to visit the park has made Meilong Ecological Park popular, and the problem of tight software and hardware services during peak passenger flow hours has become prominent. 31.46%, 29.11%, and 23% of the surveyed tourists believe that the park's sales services, children's playgrounds, and shelter pavilions cannot meet actual needs.

Similar problems to Meilong Ecological Park also exist in Fengxiang Zhixiu Park and Chunguang Park, with 28.1% and 11.25% of the surveyed tourists believing that the number of self-service vending machines in the park is insufficient.

Identify the problem as soon as possible and follow up to resolve it as soon as possible. "We have found that many of the problems are temporary, mainly because the park stations that provide corresponding services have not been built yet." Zhou Huajie, the person in charge of the Shanghai Public Green Space Construction Affairs Center, said that after communicating with various parks, we will adopt measures such as adding a batch of temporary transitional facilities according to local conditions to fill the gaps.

Meilong Ecological Park has planned to add 2 vending machines and renovate a forest parking lot.

Fengxiang Zhixiu Park has planned to add one vending machine and open indoor toilets while the tea rooms in the park are open, including public toilets in the post station and independent public toilets in the park, increasing the number of public toilets in the park to three. In addition, in response to the problem of large passenger flow parking during holidays, the park has negotiated with the opposite park, and tourist vehicles can use the park's parking lot for temporary parking, with a daily cost not exceeding 15 yuan.

The post station in Chunguang Park is expected to be completed by the end of October this year. Prior to this, one mobile toilet and two self-service vending machines have been installed.

There is a greenway in Suide Park, which is divided into a trail and a cycling path

Newly added self-service vending machines and mobile toilets in Chunguang Park

Finding the maximum common divisor

In addition to identifying and addressing current shortcomings, in-depth investigation also has the power to encourage and guide social governance.

"Some issues are actually open-ended, and there was no consensus on whether or how to solve them, whether they should be solved or how to solve them. Zhou Huajie said that these issues need to be put on the table, allowing tourists to speak freely and seek the maximum number of conventions through thorough discussion.".

The survey found that setting up tents in the park, self-service barbecue in the park, pets entering the park, and cycling in the park are currently the four hottest topics among the surveyed tourists.

For example, when it comes to the issue of pets entering the park, most young and elderly people have completely different attitudes. The support rate for tourists under the age of 25 is 65.75%, while among tourists under the age of 60, the opposition rate is as high as 62.72%.

For example, the Shanghai Park Management Regulations explicitly prohibit unauthorized barbecue behavior, and tourists have a polarized attitude towards it: 48.75% hope that barbecue can be done in the park, while 24.97% firmly oppose it on the grounds of safety, environmental protection, and order.

Young and elderly people have different opinions on whether pets can be brought into the park

After balancing the demands of all parties, Mianqing Park decided to take a step and give it a try.

The park manager stated that originally, tourists were only allowed to set up tents in three designated areas, and self-service barbecue, pet entry, and cycling were prohibited in the park. However, after fully listening to the demands of tourists of all ages and levels, a batch of bicycles were added in the park for tourists to rent on the cycling path in the park. A dedicated barbecue area has also been planned, and the park will also extend its opening hours from 7:00 to 6:00 every day to 5:00 to 9:00 to take care of morning exercise and night running people.

Chunguang Park and Meilong Ecological Park are considering opening up cycling within the park, but currently, the construction of related spaces for the former is not yet complete. The latter will wait until the end of this year to open the fence and make a decision based on the opinions of the competent department. The managers of these parks stated that regardless of the final outcome, the attitude of the park before making a decision is positive and open, and they will not ignore giving up any reasonable and constructive opinions.

The current situation and plan of supporting facilities and services related to six "environmental" ecological parks

"If citizens do not nod, work cannot proceed." Zhou Huajie said that currently, in the construction of Shanghai's urban ecological park belt, soliciting public opinions such as "golden ideas" has become a necessary step before the park plan is determined. After the completion and opening up, regular "look back" and citizen satisfaction surveys will be replicated and promoted from the first batch of "environmental" ecological parks to all "environmental" ecological parks, as well as wedge-shaped green spaces inside the ring and ecological intervals outside the ring.

In the future, all newly built ecological park projects around the city will have regular channels for soliciting public opinions after opening up, such as opinion collection boxes set up at park stations, main entrances, and main squares, to maximize the effectiveness of social sentiment and public opinion in promoting the construction of Shanghai's park city.