Mountain top sightseeing terrace becomes latest iconic landmark

An orange, spiral-shaped sightseeing platform rising 702 meters on Chengdu's Longquan Mountain has recently become a new landmark in the city.

Located between the central urban area and the city's eastern new district, the Danjingtai sightseeing platform was opened on New Year's Day and is now known as "the eye of the city".

"Standing here is amazing as you have a panoramic view of all the landmarks in the eastern new district," said Zhao Wei, a citizen who came to visit the platform and take photos.

At Danjingtai, he visited an exhibition hall, ecological science museum, and glass sightseeing bridge.

Behind the platform is Longquan Mountain Forest Park, one of the major ecological projects under Chengdu's effort to build itself into a beautiful and livable "park city". The Danjingtai scenic spot is among the first demonstration sites in Longquan Mountain Forest Park.

For thousands of years, Longquan Mountain has been regarded as an ecological barrier in east Chengdu. The rapid expansion of the city, home to 20 million people, is facing a bottleneck in its urban development.

Chengdu launched the "entering the east" strategy, trying to open up a new space for sustainable development in the city. Longquan Mountain, under this framework, has become the city's "green heart", local officials said.

In this "green heart", Chengdu developed Longquan Mountain Forest Park covering a total area of 1,275 square kilometers. Officials said it is the largest urban forest park in the world at present.

The forest park will take on the multiple functions such as ecological conservation, leisure tourism, sports and fitness, cultural experience and multinational communication, and provide citizens with great experiences.

To its east, large-scale landmarks such as Tianfu Olympic Sports Park, Sancha Lake, and Tianfu International Airport as well as a group of public service facilities and road infrastructure are under intense construction.

People's needs have been the priority during the city's construction, according to an official and the eastern new area in Chengdu will be built into a beautiful park city and a demonstration area for cities to follow in the future.

He said that the most prominent feature of a park city is to adhere to the idea of "people first, city second and industrial production third". The industrial ecosystem and living areas should be planned as a whole, providing supporting facilities for industrial, residential, commercial and public services at the same time.

The plants and parks in residential blocks, fully utilized underground space and logistics system, the autonomous driving system, multilevel transportation system, boundless community space and shared entertainment spaces will all become reality in the eastern district.

While in the central urban area, the government is striving to create open and comfortable blocks, reinvigorate the green landscape and build greenways that people can use between home and work.

In the area, Wangjianglou Park has been built as an example with an open space compatible with the surrounding environment.

"Every day when I ride by here to work, I will push my bike and walk on the stone road for a while," said Jiang Lei, a local resident.

There are also a large number of major ecological projects being implemented in Chengdu to fulfill the goal of building itself into a beautiful and livable park city.

The Tianfu Greenway, with the total planned length of 16,900 km, is said to be the longest planned urban greenway system in the world.

After its completion, it will connect the surrounding ecological areas such as parks, small amusement areas and scattered green spaces.

The greenway will fulfill multiple functions such as ecological conservation, traffic regulation, leisure tourism, the integration of rural and urban areas, cultural industry promotion, sports, agricultural landscape and emergency shelter.

The construction of a park city is conducive to highlighting the unique characteristics of Chengdu, improving the city's quality, competitiveness and environment, expanding the capacity of population and economy and generating a new driving force for high-quality development, according to an official.

According to the local government, Chengdu will continue to promote the construction of large-scale ecological corridors in Longquan Mountain Forest Park, Jinjiang River Park and Jincheng Park this year. It will build 35 demonstration blocks, 50 communities, 80 new amusement parks, micro green spaces and 30 municipal parks under the park city framework.