People in the riverfront park sports and leisure. (Hubei Daily full media reporter Liu Shusong photo)
Right now, the Yichang Riverfront Greenway is entering its final stage and is about to be completed.
Soon, the public and tourists can start from "the first dam of the Yangtze River" Gezhouba and travel all the way to the ancient battlefield of the Three Kingdoms in the intimidation zone.
The 25-kilometer riverfront greenway strings together Gezhouba Park, Zhenjiang Pavilion, Qu Yuan Square, World Peace Park, Natural Tower, Lighthouse Square, Three Kingdoms Ancient Battlefield and other mountains, water, cities and scenery, and will become a new landmark in Yichang.
Construction began in 1983
Since 1983, Yichang has organically combined crumbling shore management with the most beautiful shoreline, built Gezhouba Park, rebuilt Zhenjiang Pavilion, and built new garden attractions.
In 2006, the nine piers, the natural tower and the rouge garden were completed.
In 2019, Yichang started the remediation and restoration of 8 km of Yangtze River shoreline from the mouth of the Bailin River to the ancient battlefield of the Intimidation Zone. 3 years later, 15 piers were demolished, 134 enterprises were relocated and vacated, and 10 riverside landscape nodes were built. The 8-kilometer shoreline, which used to be full of wharves and factories, has been transformed into a magnificent "one belt with ten scenes".
In 2021, the report of the 7th Party Congress of Yichang City proposed to build a riverside park city with "international model, mountain and water rhythm, and Three Gorges feeling". Immediately afterwards, the 11-kilometer greenway from Zhenjiang Pavilion to Zhaogun Square was upgraded, and the construction of the "blockage" through project started one after another.
After nearly 40 years of construction and restoration, the former Shaba river beach, which was overgrown with weeds, piles of garbage and docks, has been transformed into a beautiful shoreline integrating history, humanity, landscape and ecology.
Balancing "new" and "old"
It is not easy to preserve large blocks of civic recreational space in prime urban areas.
How to balance the "new" and "old" in the process of new construction and reconstruction of the riverfront greenway?
The 8-kilometer Yangtze River shoreline from the mouth of the Bailing River to the ancient battlefield of the intimidation site is densely distributed with industrial terminals, fragmented sites and complex topography, and is within the core protection zone of the Chinese sturgeon, with high sensitivity of the berm renovation project.
"The 8-kilometer greenway is located in the core location, connecting the public space of each jurisdiction in series, and to achieve the goal of creating a world-class waterfront, it should play a higher-energy ecological effect." Li Xianjun, director of the Yichang City Garden Center, said the program ultimately decided to take ecological restoration as a prerequisite for site recycling.
Based on this concept, the space under the Wujiagang Yangtze River Bridge bridge, the original sand farm was transformed into an aquatic garden, rain garden, rainwater to achieve infiltration, savings, retention, purification and reuse. Grass-planted ditches, artistic grass slopes and wetland reservoirs in the garden are all based on ecology. During construction, the zone near the shore slope is taken to crush the original site to form a permeable filter layer, and then the soil is mulched on the surface layer, and then plants are planted to realize ecological restoration.
The 19-meter-high gantry tower crane was transformed into a Netflix swing, and the nitrification tank of the Linjiang sewage treatment plant was painted and illuminated in three dimensions, "repairing the old as the old, inheriting the old and innovating", and replacing large demolition and construction with in-situ use of the docks and other areas along the route.
In order to let the Yangtze River along the air line of sight is not cut, along the river all kinds of dense as a spider web of cables, electric poles and other facilities moved to the green belt under, open the view of the river, but also for the Yangtze River "white".
Expanding the public leisure space
Yichang is built by water and flourished by water, and the riverfront greenway is being built to return the landscape to nature and to the people.
In early September, people walking along the riverside noticed that there were more antique seats on the walkway, and they could enjoy the beauty of the Yangtze River comfortably by sitting on the street. Mr. Zhang, a citizen, said that in the past, the walkway space along the river was narrow, and people and vehicles competed for the road; now, the new cycling path, people and vehicles are separated, and it is safer.
The final point of shaping the waterfront space is "people". Looking around the world, many world-class cities such as New York and Shanghai have waterfront leisure space. It is not only a place for people to rest and play, but also a reflection of the harmonious coexistence of people, water and city.
Walking along the Yichang Riverfront Greenway, some of the details are impressive. Free changing rooms and bathing rooms have been set up near the water-friendly space; the underwood space in the park leaves a "grounded" native yellow ground for citizens who love Tai Chi; beside the badminton court, clothes hooks are thoughtfully installed and footrests are added under the seats ...... The park micro-transformation of "installing seats around the trees, stone benches with wooden boards, park-friendly courts, clothes hangers around the site, and public toilets with greenery" has won praise from the public.
In the former container terminal area along the river avenue, the newly built children's playground has been put into use. 2-storey high blue porpoise-shaped slides, white sandy beaches, skateboard bowl pools, wheelbarrow tracks and other fashionable children's entertainment facilities are widely popular, with hundreds of children playing in the company of their parents.
The riverfront greenway has become a beautiful landscape highlighting the quality of life of the public and the civilization of the city.
(Hubei Daily All Media Reporter Jin Lingyun Correspondent Yang Mingdong)
Hubei Daily client, focusing on Hubei and world events, not only pushes authoritative policy interpretation, fresh hot information, practical and convenient information for users, but also launches a series of special features such as palm reading, reporting, learning and online interaction.
