Innovation- solving the problems of land, capital, management and protection

It was not an easy work to build 104 parks and gardens in the central urban area where was with very high cost of land.

First problem, where was the land?

It was used to be full of mineral processing enterprises in the west bank of Xihe river where was badly polluted by the heavy metal tails and sewage. Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Chenzhou Government decided to close all the enterprises and placed great investment on clearing the river and covering over one million cubic meters soil there. Now, a high quality Xihe Beach Park was established there with over 0.3million square meters greening area. It became one of the typical models of heavy metal pollution control of Xiangjiang river.

In order to save lands and play its most efficient role, Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Chenzhou Government kept handling the greening work on some idle lands, establishing parks in the mountainous area with plants, building leisure parks in the abandon areas of mineral processing by changing soils, and etc. Assisted with all the methods, the problem concerned for land was solved successfully and the citizens were benefited from all the greening work.

“It was a great job for the government to establish the parks in the barren mountains, idle lands and tails.” Said Mr. Wang who lived in one bank of Xihe river for years once thought to escape from the polluted area, but now happily settled down.

“Besides land acquisition, the other key way to get some lands was to establish the parks and gardens with villagers. Most of the parks in the mountains were handled with this way that the government signed renting contract with the village group with price of 200yuan/mu and 100yuan/mu in central or suburb areas respectively and operated the construction work with the villages together.”introduced by Fan Chubing- Deputy Director of Chenzhou Urban Management Bureau. Followed with this way, villagers can enjoy the harmonious environment without changing their land status.

Besides land, capital was another key point concerned for handling the greening work.

According to the statistic recorded by three-establishment office of Chenzhou city, nearly one billion yuan has been used for the parks and gardens construction in recent years, including the cost of land acquisition, construction, and etc. Such big amount was not an easy job for the government to handle well.

Two key ways as direct investment by the government and social donation were handled out in Chenzhou city to solve the capital problem.

The upgrading projects of Beihu Park, East Temple Park, Wanhuayan, Suxianling and some other key landscapes of Chenzhou city were invested by the government directly. 11 big parks construction projects, such as Suxian Lake, Wangxian Lake, first phase of Shiliuwan Park, Wulingge Park, Chenjiang river landscape belt, Xihe river and Donghe river landscape belts, and etc. were followed the way of BT investment by government.

At the meantime, social donation was another key point for Chenzhou city’s construction of parks and gardens. Some offices, enterprises and mass people joined in this greening project actively.

According to the data, 112million yuan was donated by the society to handle “greening project” of Chenzhou city. 12 parks with donation of 700million yuan were donated by them as well. A lot of donated forests can be found in Chenzhou city everywhere.

So many trees were planted in the city, how to make sure they can survive in following days?

It was learned from Chenzhou Urban Management Bureau that there were over 500hectares parks and gardens available in Chenzhou city, which was really hard for the forestry departments to handle all the management and protection work. So Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Chenzhou Government released some solutions as follow to ensure the survival rate of all the newly planted trees: first, the planting units were in charge of the first 2 years management and protection work; second, the management and protection authorities on some parks and gardens were decentralized to Suxian district, Beihu district and Chenzhou High-tech Industrial Zone and they would be assisted with 1-2million yuan supporting capitals from Chenzhou municipal finance; third, Chenzhou Garden and Greening Office was in charge of the management and protection of the old urban area’s greening work and parks; and forth, marketizing management and protection way was handled out for the parks and gardens in new urban area, namely some professional teams would carry out the maintenance work by public bidding.

Particularly worth mentioning was that Chenzhou city promoted the greening work by removing some walls. Chenzhou Municipal Party Committee and Chenzhou Government took the first action to remove the walls of their courtyards. Some other subordinate departments followed their way as well later. Till now, 90% departments whose courtyards were near the streets or main roads removed the walls to handle the greening work. According to the data, 0.3million square meters areas were removed to assist the greening work.
It was introduced by the principal of Chenzhou Garden Office that no planning, land and capital problems for this wall removing work, but can greatly upgrade the communication with mass people and improve the ecological condition. Furthermore, it can also help to save the maintenance cost.

Great achievements were reached for Chenzhou city’s “greening project” and “three-year greening project of urban and rural area” by solving the problems hindered on its way, and Chenzhou city truly became a “city in the forest”.

Postscript

Chenzhou city has been changed, but not just the change of city itself.

How can these kinds of great changes happened in this city which was with the same land, people, cadre and resource?

“It was mainly for the opening idea and concept which would be the most treasurable point for Chenzhou city’s further development.” said Zhang Fuquan- Deputy Director of Hunan Provincial Policy Research Center and Deputy Secretary-general of China Society of Urban Economy.

A city with one hundred gardens, which benefited people’s daily life greatly and could tell the great expectation of the city as well with the opening idea and aggressive reform concept. 

These changes were not only changes of Chenzhou city, but the most powerful changes too.