Search

"Beautiful garden made of garbage" – Beijing Garden Expo Park as an example of a modern approach to creating public botanical gardens

Tkachenko Kirill

Abstract

Since the beginning of the new century, China has implemented numerous state programs for creating public parks and gardens throughout the country. These gardens serve as modern public botanical gardens. Emerging gardens and parks attract citizens not only as a place of recreation – these venues become centers and foundation for implementation of various educational programs for citizens, schoolchildren and students, landscape designers and experts in the field of ornamental plant cultivation. Such public gardens and new landscaped parks actively address regional environmental issues; they are examples of implementation of original projects for environmental protection. What is the most important here is that such modern public gardens create comfortable conditions for living and relaxing. To attract visitors, most of the parks create extraordinary expositions of plants, organize various flower fairs, open children playgrounds. The new parks, especially those with landscape projects, always have original and unique mass planting of ornamental and flowering perennials (Dahlia, Hosta, Hemerocallis, Paeonia - herbaceous species and varieties), bush (Buddleja, Weigela, tree species and varieties of the genus Paeonia, Rosa) or woody plant species (Amygdalus, Cerasus, Malus, Prunus, Syringa). There are projects for a comprehensive development and education of children (theme parks, dinosaur parks). The new public botanical gardens have an elaborate modern infrastructure for a comfortable stay of all categories of visitors. A new park in Beijing is a unique project implemented at a former city waste area. The project was started in 2010. In 2013, the park was opened for its first visitors. Today, it has 69 gardens representing different Chinese provinces and major cities, as well as other countries whose designers wanted to demonstrate their class. The created gardens of 1-2 to 10-12 hectares represent both traditional styles of Chinese gardens and the latest trends in the field of garden art. The Museum of Chinese Gardens and Landscape Architecture (MCGALA) is a part of the park’s vast territory of 513 hectares. The park also has the necessary infrastructure for its visitors with disabilities. Today, it has become a home for many educational institutions training specialists in the field of landscape design, as well as for the employees of the country’s parks, agronomists and gardeners.