China's teeming cities get greener and cleaner in nationwide parks campaign
Beijing and other Chinese cities are opening parks at a rapid pace in a nationwide greenification project, providing residents an escape from hectic urban life.
BEIJING — On the banks of a river on the outskirts of China’s teeming capital, a sign on a blocked pathway gently warned people away: “It’s the black swan’s incubation period, please quietly go around.”
From a platform above, visitors at the Qinghe Waterfront Green Corridor watched as the swan guarded several eggs in her nest, getting prickly with the occasional duck that wandered too close. Other birds swam nearby as the sun sparkled on the water from a clear blue sky.
“At first, there were no ducks, and now swans from Yuanmingyuan come here because the environment has improved,” said Liu Junping, referring to the nearby Old Summer Palace.
“Qinghe” means “clear river” in Chinese, but it’s only in recent years that Beijing residents began using those words to describe the canal, which runs along a highway in the city’s Haidian district. The improvement is attributed to upgrades in nearby wastewater treatment facilities, which in the past had been so overwhelmed that raw sewage was sometimes discharged directly into the river.
Liu, who comes to the river park for a stroll every day, said it had a “good vibe.”
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