gao dawei from beijing municipal bureau of landscape and greening: build the capital into a big garden
2024-09-25
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build the capital into a big garden
——interview with gao dawei, party secretary and director of beijing municipal bureau of landscape and greening
seeing greenery when opening the window and seeing scenery when going out are the personal feelings of beijing citizens about the improvement of the city's ecological quality in recent years. when participating in the voluntary tree planting activity in the capital, general secretary xi jinping pointed out that it is necessary to "build the capital into a big garden". beijing actively implements xi jinping's ecological civilization thought and builds up the advantages of green development. in march 2024, it issued the "opinions on deepening ecological civilization practice and promoting the construction of the capital's garden city" (hereinafter referred to as the "opinions"), and simultaneously issued and implemented the "beijing garden city special plan (2023-2035)" (hereinafter referred to as the "plan"), which opened a new stage of comprehensive construction of the garden city and strived to create a garden city with blue sky and clear water, forests and gardens, magnificent order, and harmonious and livable. recently, the reporter of this magazine conducted an exclusive interview with gao dawei, secretary of the party committee and director of the beijing municipal bureau of landscape and greening, focusing on the theme of promoting the construction of the capital's garden city.
from the "city of thousands of gardens" to the garden capital
reporter:
the construction of a garden city is a natural consequence of the capital, and is also an important aspect of promoting the high-quality development of the capital, improving the level of urban governance, and enhancing the people's sense of gain. please tell us what the overall goals and key tasks of the construction of a garden city are.
gao dawei:
"the mountains are covered with forests, the plains are a blend of blue and green, and the cities and towns are full of birdsong and flowers." general secretary xi jinping once described the appearance of a beautiful china in this way. the third plenary session of the 20th cpc central committee emphasized that we should focus on building a beautiful china and promote harmonious coexistence between man and nature. "building the capital into a big garden" is general secretary xi jinping's ardent expectation and important requirement for the construction of a harmonious and livable city in beijing. the municipal party committee and municipal government regard the garden city as an inherent requirement for the construction of a world-class harmonious and livable city, adhere to the deep integration of the "five-in-one" construction of economic, political, cultural, social and ecological civilization, and strive to promote the good governance of the city with embroidery skills. the "opinions" and "plan" clearly propose to build a "one screen, five belts, two axes, three rings, nine wedges and fifteen pieces" urban spatial pattern, create 15 essence areas such as the old city, the three mountains and five gardens area, and the sub-center, and build 8 types of garden-style scenes that are closely related to people's lives. 2024 is the starting year for beijing to promote the high-quality development of the whole forest city and build a garden city surrounded by forests. we will continue to add green momentum to the economic and social development of the capital with high-quality landscaping construction.
reporter: it is understood that beijing currently has 1,065 parks. as a "city of a thousand parks", what kind of resources does beijing have? how can we make good use of these advantages to promote the construction of a garden city?
gao dawei: beijing is a famous historical and cultural city with a 3,000-year history of city construction and a 870-year history of being the capital. the site selection, construction, development and changes of beijing city all reflect the wisdom of chinese civilization in adapting to nature. it can be said that the harmonious coexistence of man and nature is beijing's innate cultural gene.
since the 18th cpc national congress, beijing has successively implemented two rounds of afforestation projects covering one million mu. by the end of 2023, the city's forest coverage rate will reach 44.9%, which is at the leading level among the world's metropolises; the urban green coverage rate will reach 49.8%, ranking first among the cities above the provincial level in china, laying a green ecological foundation for beijing. with the gradual construction of the park and recreation system, a large number of urban leisure parks, suburban parks, etc. have been built one after another, and 1,065 parks are spread across urban and rural areas. beijing has become a veritable "city of a thousand parks".
in recent years, beijing's ecological environment has been getting better and better. in the first half of 2024 alone, we discovered four new species, including the chinese azalea. the city currently has 2,088 species of vascular plants, 612 species of terrestrial vertebrates, including 519 species of birds. beijing has become one of the most biodiverse metropolises. these natural advantages are the foundation and confidence for us to build a garden city. we will build on beijing's natural resource endowment and cultural and historical characteristics, take ecological civilization as the guide, and continuously promote the green development of the city through the participation of the whole society and refined governance.
integration and innovation enhance the charm of the capital's garden city
reporter: what key projects has beijing promoted in its garden city construction? what role has it played in promoting urban greening and meeting the needs of citizens for a better life?
gao dawei: in order to better promote the construction of a garden city, we proposed a construction model of "promoting demonstration areas, improving the recreation system, coordinating scenic corridors, and consolidating the ecological foundation", and planned a number of representative projects. for example, in combination with urban renewal, we incorporated pocket parks, district-level and community-level greenways, tree-lined roads, three-dimensional greening and other garden greening elements and contents into the transformation, achieving a better integration of garden greening with various urban elements such as water, electricity, gas, roads and houses, and jointly creating a number of characteristic demonstration blocks, so that citizens can truly feel the new changes in the city's beauty and livability.
in the construction of the urban scenic corridor system, we rely on urban expressways and gateway areas to beijing to create a "two axes and six rings" scenic visual corridor: build a capital green corridor led by chang'an avenue and its extension, and the central axis and its extension; build a second ring ancient city flower corridor with ancient charm and vitality, a third ring new city color corridor with colorful four seasons, a fourth ring century gallery with greenery blending into the city, a fifth ring forest landscape corridor with forests accompanying the city, and a sixth ring landscape corridor with mountains, rivers and people, to create a colorful cloud corridor overlooking beijing.
we are accelerating the preparation of a special plan for the park recreation system, systematically promoting the construction of parks, greenways, and vitality circles, implementing the special plan for the greenway system, and promoting the organic integration of healthy greenways, waterfront slow-moving, and urban slow-moving systems. at present, beijing has built 1,515 kilometers of greenways, connecting communities, business districts, parks, green spaces, villages, and forests. in the near future, we will also take the opportunity of celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of new china to carefully create the "beijing color park" brand; combined with the construction of 500 kilometers of greenways in the second half of the year, we will focus on creating the "beijing greenway" brand. at the same time, we will actively promote the concept of "vitality circle", relying on parks, greenways and surrounding areas to create commercial, fitness, and recreational places, expand comprehensive service functions, and innovate and build new consumption scenes. the improvement of this system can greatly enhance the ecological, landscape and service functions of parks and green spaces and areas along the line, while driving the development of related industries such as cultural tourism services and agricultural tourism, and truly become a "vitality gathering place" in the city.
reporter: the plan points out that the construction of a garden city is an important starting point for the second phase of the implementation of beijing's overall urban plan, and is also an important driving force for strengthening the connection between production, living and ecological space systems. in this regard, what useful explorations has beijing made?
gao dawei: in the construction of the garden city, beijing has promoted the organic integration of production, living and ecological space by deeply embedding green space with urban functions. in order to highlight the style of the capital, we carefully protect beijing's natural landscape and historical and cultural heritage, open up the "silver ingot mountain viewing" landscape corridor, gradually connect and connect the central axis imperial road and surrounding landscapes, and restore the ancient garden area of 6 hectares. at the same time, we strengthen the management of the entire life cycle of ancient trees and famous trees, and build the largest number of ancient tree gene resource gardens in my country.
in order to create a garden-like scene, we have built various types of garden-like urban-green mixed units, forming 8 types of garden scenes such as garden streets, garden villages, and garden business districts, and promoted the gardenization of urban space. at present, we have created urban public life scenes in juer hutong in dongcheng district, gulou west street in xicheng district, xiangyue four seasons community in shunyi district, and other places, and created garden-like diversified consumption scenes in qianmen sanlihe, wudaoying, sanlitun and other business districts, and created a number of garden-like towns and garden-like villages demonstration sites in fangshan, tongzhou, miyun and other districts. among them, the 800,000 square meters of international style waterfront built on liangma river in chaoyang district has become a golden business card for international tourism consumption in the capital.
to promote the integration of green city and flower city, we have completed the all-age friendly renovation of 60 parks, and realized the shade of trees on 54 roads; we have started the construction of 20 garden-style demonstration blocks, 300 green overpasses, and 30 community micro gardens. among them, the renovation of ping'an street has improved the scale of the old city's urban space by optimizing the road section and increasing the central green belt, improving the safety and comfort of walking and riding in the shade, and realizing the integration and symbiosis of traditional historical features and modern shared space.
in addition, beijing has also actively explored environmental monitoring and resource protection, built 150 water-saving and rain-collecting green spaces, and achieved no discharge of 100 mm of precipitation in urban green spaces; built ecological monitoring stations to achieve full-factor monitoring of typical areas such as forests, wetlands, and green spaces, and built the country's first comprehensive ecological perception model library "wanxiang". in the next step, we will also promote green and low-carbon development of buildings and promote the optimization design of urban furniture.
reporter: the construction of a garden city cannot be separated from the broad participation of the people. what work has beijing done to lead citizens to participate in the construction and maintenance of the garden city? what achievements have been made?
gao dawei: extensive participation from all sectors of society is an important feature of the construction of the capital's garden city. the capital's national voluntary tree planting activities have been carried out for 43 years, and the connotation of voluntary tree planting has been continuously enriched. we have introduced 37 forms of voluntary tree planting in eight categories, including afforestation, nurturing and management, planting and adoption, and volunteer services. on this basis, we actively build a governance pattern of co-construction, co-governance and sharing of the garden city, and cultivate a green production and lifestyle in the whole society. the municipal bureau of landscape and greening and the municipal party committee organization department jointly issued the "three leading" initiative of taking the lead in voluntary tree planting, beautifying homes, and taking the lead in civilized garden tours, advocating that all party members in the city help the construction of the garden city with "double registration", promote the "everyone is a gardener" model, and accelerate the formation of a conscious action of expanding green, developing green, and protecting green. at present, the city has carried out more than 1,100 related activities, attracting more than 15,000 working party members to help add color to the construction of the garden city. at the same time, we have brought into play the role of 30 ecological civilization publicity and education bases and 100 gardening stations in the city, carried out the "flowers and fruits into courtyards, gardening into communities" activities, and guided citizens to participate in the greening of residential areas, balconies, and roofs; held the "citizens' garden festival" for five consecutive years, and in 2024, the 16 districts of the city and the beijing economic development zone launched the "thousands of households and tens of thousands of pots" chrysanthemum cultivation competition, and carried out thousands of ecological gardening public welfare activities. such practices of citizens jointly building and sharing garden cities are being vividly staged in all districts of the city.
continue to create a new situation in the construction of ecological civilization in the capital
reporter: the opinions pointed out that we should foster new drivers of development and create new models of ecological economy. what innovative practices and highlights does beijing have in developing the beautiful economy?
gao dawei: green development is the background of high-quality development. beijing pays special attention to continuously promoting the transformation of ecological advantages into development advantages in building a garden city. on the one hand, we will strive to promote the transformation and upgrading of the traditional garden greening industry, expand and strengthen the "beijing brand" fruit and flower honey, establish and improve sales channels, and realize branding and marketization; innovate forestry management and operation models, vigorously develop new collective forest farms, and promote the development of forest economy. on the other hand, relying on the capital's garden greening resources and various garden-style scenes, we will continue to create a garden city characteristic ip and guide citizens to consume new fashions. since 2023, we have launched the "garden four seasons" series of national tour activities ip with the theme of "spring flowers, summer fruits, autumn colors, and winter birds". among them, 125 million citizens participated in the "colorful beijing autumn" series of activities, driving consumption of 5.9 billion yuan. during the 2024 spring festival, the "family gardening carnival" drove the family gardening transaction volume to 1.61 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%. at the end of march, the "flowers in beijing 2024 national flower appreciation season" kicked off, and more than 55 million people in the city have participated in it. while "garden four seasons" helps beijing polish its ecological civilization, it also meets the citizens' growing demand for a beautiful ecological environment, excellent ecological culture, and high-quality ecological products, effectively activating the green momentum of regional development.
reporter: the third plenary session of the 20th cpc central committee emphasized that chinese-style modernization is a modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature. what ideas and measures does beijing have to deepen the reform of the supporting system and mechanism of gardening and greening and realize the green development of the capital?
gao dawei: the deployment of the third plenary session of the 20th cpc central committee on deepening the reform of the ecological civilization system provides an action guide for the construction of ecological civilization in the new era. as the main responsible unit for the construction of garden cities, we will take strong responsibilities to grasp the reform of supporting systems and mechanisms, and accelerate the formation of perceptible and demonstrable results in the construction of garden cities. first, we must accelerate the research and promotion of the revision and formulation of relevant laws and regulations on the construction of garden cities. second, we must accelerate the introduction of a garden city construction index system, formulate various technical guidelines for the construction of garden cities, and guide various districts to prepare special plans or implementation plans for garden cities. third, we must accelerate the preparation and implementation of special plans for recreation systems, formulate relevant policies for the integration of green cities and flower cities, study and formulate policy specifications for the integration of garden elements into infrastructure such as transportation, architecture, and urban furniture, as well as implementation plans for "urban renewal + garden city" demonstration projects such as 15 garden city essence areas and 8 types of garden-style scenes, and clarify construction models and technical standards.
reporter: what challenges does the construction of a garden city still face? in the future, how can beijing further improve the level of urban greening and beautification to create a more harmonious and livable garden city?
gao dawei: building a garden city is a complex system project, involving many issues that need to be coordinated and promoted. for example, in terms of balancing the relationship between ecological protection and urban construction, there is still a contradiction that the scale of urban underground space utilization is gradually expanding, and the space for tree growth and groundwater replenishment channels are constantly compressed; in terms of linking with urban renewal, how to better integrate garden-style elements into urban functions such as buildings, roads, and urban furniture requires the formulation of clear standards and technical specifications, etc. to solve these problems, the gardening and greening departments and various industries and departments need to work together to promote it. the first is to strengthen leadership, improve the system, introduce special plans for greenway systems, three-year action plans for greening and colorization, formulate a number of supporting policy documents, form a multi-level and systematic policy and system framework, and build a working pattern with each district as the implementation subject and multiple departments working together. the second is to strengthen publicity and guidance, from government departments to industry academic groups, and then to the news media, to work together to gather broad forces for building a garden city.
next, we will adhere to the "five-in-one" strategy, use ecological methods to govern urban ecology, and comprehensively build a "garden city surrounded by forests". first, we will continue to work hard to promote the high-quality development of forest cities across the region. we will tap potential and increase greening, and continuously optimize the layout of ecological space; build a natural protection area system with national parks as the main body, strengthen the protection of wild animals and plants and their habitats, and build a biodiversity capital. second, we will make precise efforts to create a beautiful home that is suitable for living and working. we will improve the park recreation system and build an urban park system featuring historical gardens, cultural heritage, and ecological culture; implement the three-year action plan for urban colorization, and build two urban scenic corridor systems of "one fast and one slow to see beijing"; accelerate the integration of green cities and flower cities, increase the greening of overpass bridges and building facades, and vigorously promote the construction of tree-lined roads and tree-lined parking lots. third, we will gather strength to promote the transformation of ecological advantages into development advantages. we will promote the integrated development of gardening and greening with sports, culture and tourism and other industries, innovate and develop new formats such as greenway economy, park economy, forest health care, and ecological camping, and establish and improve an ecological protection compensation transfer payment system based on the results of the total value of ecological products. fourth, we will work hard to build a new governance pattern of co-governance and sharing. we will establish and improve the "100 gardens, 100 teachers" and community gardening systems, vigorously implement nature education in the classroom, green gardening in the home, landscape design in the neighborhood, and ecological culture in the network, promote the full integration of professional forces into urban governance, tell the story of beautiful beijing well, and enhance the ecological civilization awareness of the whole society.
source: frontline.com
