Waste hills transformed into city parks in Liangjiang

Liangjiang's first mountain sports park is equipped with various sports facilities for people of all ages. [Photo/liangjiang.gov.cn]

A mountain sports park recently opened to the public in Liangjiang New Area, Southwest China's Chongqing municipality. It is the first of its kind in the area and has attracted citizens to participate in leisure activities and sports.

Located near Wannian Road in Renhe sub-district, the hill has a maximum drop of about 70 meters. It went unused for years due to its poor environmental conditions. Since its transformation, the park will benefit more than 100,000 residents in the surrounding communities.

The park has a planned area of 420,000 square meters. It will be connected with neighboring Jinshan Park after it's fully completed, becoming a green corridor covering an area of 1,200 mu (80 hectares).

The park has runways, rock climbing areas, grass skiing areas, volleyball courts, basketball courts, table tennis courts, skate parks and a parent-child amusement park suitable for citizens of all ages.

To fully protect native plants and topographic features, the park was planted with more than 7,000 plants of 47 varieties and 80,000 sq meters of bushes and ground-cover plants.

The park is one of Liangjiang's 67 waste hill afforestation projects covering a collective 3.57 million sq m. By the end of 2020, Liangjiang had 119 parks, a green space ratio of 40.1 percent, a green coverage ratio of 45.14 percent and 16.17 sq m of green space per capita, ranking first in West China for park quantity and density.