Green Acres?
Some people really think Shanghai is a “Garden City”
NOTE: A version of this story appears in the June issue of that’s Shanghai magazine.
by DAN WASHBURN
To most people in Shanghai, green is the color your face turns when the city’s air is at its most acrid. But Shanghai officials hope to force the color from your face and stick it in the ground … tree after tree after tree. They are overseeing a greening of Shanghai’s acres that would make Oliver Wendell Douglas proud. And soon — maybe even late this year — this concrete jungle will officially be known as a “Garden City.” Believe it or not, the Shanghai Landscaping Administration Bureau claims that at the end of last year Shanghai was 30 percent green space. The goal is to have that figure at 35 percent by the end of this year, which would satisfy one requirement for the Construction Ministry of China’s “Garden City” status. This begs the logical question: Where exactly is all of this green space? Well, you may be standing on some right now and not even know it.
“Embedded in a lot of the local Shanghai codes is a very strong emphasis on green space and green area, which is basically a very good thing,” said Chris Choa, partner and managing director of HLW, a New York-based architectural firm responsible for many high-profile projects in Shanghai. “But when Westerners think of green space, we think of a park — a real park — often with grass that you can sit and tramp on. In China, it’s any area that is specifically designated as green space. There are certain things that qualify. Lawns and bushes count. A row of trees or even one tree with a kind of affected area next to it counts as green space. Turf block that you can park on counts as green space. In some cases, even hard landscape that has no green space whatsoever counts as green space.”
Ask a Shanghai government official about green space and you’ll get a lot of numbers. For example, Shanghai’s per capita green space is expected to reach nine square meters this year, which is two square meters more than a “Garden City” needs. Forest coverage is another buzzword, and it has everything to do with trees — which are being planted by the thousands in Shanghai. Shanghai’s forest coverage, around 10 percent, is well below the national average of 16.6 percent, but the Landscaping Administration Bureau estimates the figure will be 30 percent by 2020. By the end of 2004, the bureau would like every Shanghai resident to have a sizeable park within walking distance from his or her home. It is also in the process of building a 3,100-hectare green belt around the city.
“We don’t think there is any country in the world increasing its park area like us,” boasted bureau director Hu Yun Hua. “For example, we spent RMB 10 billion and removed 12,000 residents to build a 28 hectare area of the Square Park. And we have also built a lot of parks in the other districts. By the end of 1993, the per capita green space was 1.15 square meters, but by the end of last year it reached to 7.6 square meters. Such an increase of the green space area has never happened before.”
But it is still difficult to find a plot of grass that you can actually play on. Parks here are pristine and perfect. Grass is to be looked at and not laid upon. This is a very different mindset than the one found in the West, where places like New York’s Central Park or London’s Hyde Park don’t hide their imperfections. In fact, people appreciate them. They make the park seem more worn in and welcoming. It should come as no surprise that a more privatized school of thought prevails in China where, according to Choa, “cities have historically never developed a public domain.”
“Actually there’s no conceptual underpinning for that. No one really knows how to do that,” Choa said. “And while I applaud in general the increase in the open space and the green area, numbers are not enough. It’s very hard to quantify the quality of an urban space. You can say you have 35 percent green area, but actually some things that make a city attractive to be in are not necessarily related to green area. For example, Fifth Avenue in New York is a wonderful place, but it has very little green space. In fact, it has no green space. And there are areas in Pudong that have tons and tons of green area but are some of the most inhuman spaces in the world.”
Yeah, but is New York a “Garden City”?
choa’s choices
Shanghai has more than 125 public parks. Here are four of the best, as recommended by local architect Chris Choa.
* Fuxing Park: “This is a true urban park, with a distinctly European feeling (which is not surprising, as it was originally laid out by the French during the concession period). Many of the original plane trees are still in place, and it is very pleasant to stroll through its various walks. There is wide variety of public spaces, some very formal and axial, others very intimate. Like a true great city park, it attracts a diverse group of people from every age group.”
* Century Park: “A tour de force characteristic of other international millennium projects. There are some interesting areas (for example a water plaza, where kids can scamper between dancing water jets set to music), but in general the park seems to suffer from gigantism. It contains vast perspectives and gives one the feeling of being overexposed. It is impressive but perhaps not yet as gracious as a park should be.”
* Xujiahui Park: “A stone’s throw from the hellish scale of Xujiahui, there is a recently opened park with some interesting urban artifact “surprises.” My favorites are the old brick chimney, an innovative bridge and a giant Shanghai map. The old EMI headquarters, now an exquisite restaurant, is nearby. While the public spaces are generally still too formal for my taste, the park as a whole is planned and executed with a great deal of care.”
* Cercle Sportif: “A wonderful secret, right in the middle of downtown. People pass outside it every day on Huaihai Middle Road without realizing what is behind the line of urban topiary and the billboard fence. You can get to the former tennis gardens of the old French Sports Club from its Maoming Road entrance — initially intimidating since it shares its guardhouse with the vehicular drive to the (Okura) Garden Hotel. But inside is one of the quietest spaces in Central Shanghai — filled with the smell of roses and clover. On a good day, you can stretch out on the lawn with a newspaper, some magazines, a novel … and then take a nap.”
3 Comments
your words provoke my impression of parks in my childhood.for at that time the lawn was for being watched from a distance not for playing on that(though i was yearn to put my whole body on that)
but unfortunately, i was taught that a good child should not tread on grass to damage it and more unfortunately, i was regarded as a good child.so each time i could do nothing but be a good child and give up my desire. so the thought of “don’t tread on lawn” has been rooted in my heart, it may be a tragedy for people like me. but today when i took a bus from school, i just saw a beautiful park and lots of people including many children playing on the lawn freely under the bright sunshine. i told myself shanghai is really changing silently.maybe the number of how much percent of the coverage does not make sense,but it will be wonderful if everyone in shanghai can enjoy the green
Hoho,I don’t think I enjoy those public parks here very much.As to the Century Park,the typical one, I guess that the distance between the trees is the same. I’m sure it was not easy to make such accurate calculation on such a vast scale.And it isn’t surprising that the crowns of the trees look exactly the same.Every thing is in right order,which is always regarded as a wonder in the nature.
Well, people do have the talent to create wonders. Maybe I should celebrate .See,people say there should be trees ,then there were the trees.
They plan to have a ratio of the space of a bedroom per family in Shanghai. That’s a lot. Plus, they are going to make part of Nanjing Road a green area.