Park is green heart of city's new area

A short walk away from Guiyang's newly built skyscraping monuments to modernity sits Guanshan Lake Park, an idyllic natural refuge from the hectic pace of city life.

Completed in July of last year, the 70,000 square meter park is a central feature of Guiyang's Jinyang New Area, which city planners envision will one day become the metropolitan core of the city.

One of the city's seven ecological parks, Guanshan Lake is also a stone's throw away from city's new convention and exhibition center, which is currently hosting the 2012 Eco-Forum Global, an international convention for world leaders to discuss today's pressing environmental issues.

When the city is not hosting a convention, the park is mostly populated by local retirees, who come to catch wild fish in the park's lake or to take a leisurely stroll on one of the many wooden pathways that cross broad swaths of reeds, lilies and other lush wetland vegetation.

One retired man, who declined to be named, said he comes to the park to ride his bicycle every day that it does not rain. He moved to Guiyang a few years back when he retired to live with his children and in the short time he has lived in the city, he has noticed incredible changes, especially in Jinyang.

"This whole area used to be farmland only a few years ago," he said, motioning with his hand. "Now, it is full of skyscrapers."

The multitude of tall apartments surrounding the park bear silent testimony to the kind of high hopes the city has for Jinyang in the coming years.

According to the website of the Guiyang city government, the population of the new area is expected to grow exponentially in the next five years as the city strives to develop into a regional hub and attract more enterprises to establish headquarters within the area.

Jinyang has been built with an eye toward future potential traffic problems that are likely to arise from rapid growth, according to the city government.

"Every year it changes", the man said. "In this district, traffic is smooth. In the old town, the streets were crowded all the time, but here, they are wide."

From 2004 to 2008, the population of the area more than doubled from 70,000 to 180,000, and this trend is likely to be accelerated in the near future now that offices are starting to relocate there.

Another visitor to the park, Wang Juan, a housewife whose husband works in Jinyang, moved to Guizhou a few years ago from another province. She said Guiyang is a good place to raise children.

"The air quality here is good and the environment is well protected," she said.

She also added that the area has good high schools and primary schools.

Guanshan Lake Park is also increasingly being used as a site for events. When Guiyang hosted the ninth Traditional Games for Ethnic Groups of China, the park was used for a massive feast with 9,999 tables. Its Spring Festival celebration is so popular that security guards say they have to portion out the tickets among several different days because the park becomes so overwhelmed.

The author is a copy editor and reporter of China Daily. You may reach him at wardjd@chinadaily.com.cn