Chaoyang continues its green push with new parks and open spaces

Beijing's Chaoyang, which spans 475 square kilometers, has continued in its efforts to make the district greener in the first six months of 2020, despite the disruption caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

From January to June, the district converted 140.4 hectares of land into green space, and improved the environment surrounding 100 streets and lanes.

The district completed work on six parks, covering an area of 277.4 hectares, and expedited construction on another six parks such as Jinzhan Forest Park in the first half of 2020.

One of the completed parks was Sunhe Country Park in Sunhe village, which connects several greenbelts and covers an area of 19.3 hectares. The country park provides hundreds of thousands of people from nearby residential areas and industrial parks with valuable green space.

Residents in Wangsiying township saw nearly 4,000 illegal buildings, deemed dangerous and unclean, dismantled to make way for green space.

For other semi-urban areas that have a dense population and poor environment, the district converted 111.7 hectares into forest.

The authorities in Chaoyang have also worked to improve water quality. The district continued its annual survey and assessment on centralized drinking water sources in towns and townships, with plans to designate areas of drinking water source protection.