Green and serene

After the proposal, local gardening and greening bureaus worked with water management authorities.

A total of 320 million yuan ($47.6 million) has been invested in the Dongcheng section of the green belt so far.

The authority has built sightseeing platforms on the steep slope along the moat to allow visitors to savor the scenery.

Pavilions have been constructed to provide resting spots for visitors.

Pedestrian lanes connect the green belt's areas.

Travelers can easily reach Ditan and Longtanhu parks, as well as a green area south of the city's central axis.

The belt also incorporates elements of Dongcheng district's history, Xu says.

Walls feature sculptures of motifs from traditional Beijing culture, such as children's games, tea ceremonies and Chinese martial chess.

"We'd like Beijingers to reminisce while visiting," Xu says.

Functional art depicting pipelines offers shade and resting areas at the green belt's section that's near China's first tap-water museum. Ancient-style silos and agricultural implements, such as tools for weighing rice, have been added to the Haiyuncang section, which used to hold grain reserves.

Two large forest parks are being built near the green belt.

The 16,000-square-meter Ande urban forest park and the 19,000-square-meter Yandun Park are scheduled to be completed by the end of August, Dongcheng's gardening and greening bureau says.

Yuan Zhiping has frequented Guhehuayu to walk and use exercise equipment over the years.

"I come here every morning after getting up," he says.

He returns in afternoons and evenings if he has time.

Yuan has lived in the neighborhood for roughly six decades.

"The environment is good with the water and plants," he says.

The area was mostly mud and dirt slopes before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Yuan recalls.

"It was dirty and messy," he says.

He only walked by the site occasionally then. He'd often walk several hundred meters to avoid the area on his way to Ditan Park.

Today, Yuan enjoys strolling through the flowers along the moat.

And he says he looks forward to the new forest parks that will soon open along the green belt.