In downtown Shanghai where a piece of lands is worth a piece of gold, constructing a high-quality and high-taste Expo Park and making it a natural oxygen bar in this metropolis show the decision and responsibility of the Chinese Government for natural environment and urban ecology, and demonstrate the theme "Better City, Better Life" of Expo 2010 Shanghai China as well.

"All buildings give way to green spaces and really leave the green to the people of the city for better well-being." This may be the deepest feeling of all the persons who participate in the construction of the Expo Park.

How Unique the Scene Here Is

By Dai Qian

A Gently spreading Chinese Folding Fan

The Expo Park is situated in the Pudong area within the site of the Expo 2010 Shanghai China. It is at the former Zhoujiadu and Bailianjing, adjacent to the Huangpu River. The expo park covers an area of about 29ha, spanning about 2km in length and 70-300m in breadth. It is next to the major pavilions of the Expo 2010 and is the most important waterfront public green space in this area.

The Expo Park is not only a place for visitors of the Expo 2010 to have a rest and appreciate the beautiful scenery. It will become a significant public park integrating leisure, entertainment and sightseeing functions in the downtown Shanghai after the 2010 Expo is ended.

In terms of positioning, the combination of "waterfront green space, downtown green space, and Expo green space" leads to a magnificent and natural general layout and presents an extraordinary concept of the Expo Park in planning designs, of which the most praiseworthy is its utilization of waterfront advantages and design concept of "beach"  and "fan rib" to realize a harmony between water and green space along the river. For the best effect of this design concept and flood protection requirements, the designers consider a gradual terrain rise of the Expo Park, which can not only meet the demand for water accessibility but also offer a new angle for people to overlook the river.

The designers make a "seamless connection" between the green space, site and waters with the public space, pavilions and neighboring environment along the Huangpu River in the form of "beach", and borrow from the formation method of "beach" to create a natural landform with different heights and abundant styles. The colors of the plants in the Park are gradually "faded" from the thick and heavy center to weak periphery along with the spread of the "beach".

The gentle transition created by the "beach" contains a lot and forms a giant multiplexed ecosystem in the whole Expo Park.

According to the requirements of the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, arbors must account for 60% of plants in the green space for the purpose of sun-shading and cooling. However, a mass of arbors may obstruct visitors' view, so the green plants in the Expo Park will be distributed vertical to the Huangpu River, that is to say, high arbors will be only planted at the "fan ribs" and short plants and lawns will be distributed between the "ribs".

Overlooked in the air, the whole Expo Park is like an opened "folding fan" with a large "beach" and a "framework" of arbors overlapped. High and dispersed arbors act as the ribs of this fan to divide the whole park into small units. Within every unit, various plants are adapted to the seasons into different shapes and colors.

Green Space Beside River and River in Green

The terraced waterfront platform is a unique sight in the Expo Park. The waterfront constructions along the Huangpu River within the Expo site are mostly upright "reinforced cement plates". They will be reconstructed to terraced green slopes that can prevent once-in-a-thousand-year flood. The waterfront platform will be submerged at high tide every day, and the people can play with water on it at low tide. Thus the natural resource is utilized reasonably, and visitors can appreciate and feel the fantastic changes of tides of the Huangpu River.

Moreover, the water in the Huangpu River will be brought into the park to build artificial lakes and streams for visitors to approach and play, which provides them an opportunity to be close to nature and cooling effect. All landscaping, leisure seats and playgrounds in the park will be arranged along the riverside to enable visitors to enjoy the beautiful scenery along the Huangpu River where they walk or rest.

As the green space of the Expo 2010 Shanghai, the Expo Park has different functions with general urban green space. It must serve as traffic hub, waiting area and dispersing passage of visitors. At the same time, it will, as a landscape green space in the Expo site, become one of the landmark buildings of Expo 2010 Shanghai and present to the theme "Better City, Better Life" vividly.

With regard to evacuation of visitors, the roads in the Expo Park are designed to be diverged-combined-diverged, which can allow for effective dispersion of visitors in the course of sightseeing. The overhead lake bridges can attract visitors to the higher and then bring them to the lower, which can not only provide multi-layer visual effects but also disperse the people effectively.

A variety of plants will be selected during and after the Expo owing to some changes in the functions. During the Expo 2010, with a view to some safety problems such as dispersion of visitors, there will be fewer shrubs and flowers, and large-area lawns will be laid for visitors to wait and have a rest. After the Expo 2010, there will be fewer lawns to reduce maintenance costs and more shrubs in the park.

With the greater efforts by the Expo constructors, the Expo Park is certain to be an eye-catching sight of Expo 2010 Shanghai China.