A central axis stretching from south to north in Beijing is known for its long history. The axis connects landmark building including the Yongding Gate, Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Jingshan Mountain, Bell and Drum Tower, and eventually leads into forests and park areas, where the Olympic Forest Park lies. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the forest park’s opening to the public. Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute and Beijing World Olympic Forest Park Development & Operation Co. recently held a joint celebration ceremony.

10 million tourists visit the park annually

“After 10 years of rapid development, the park is now well received by citizens of Beijing as well as tourists and fitness enthusiasts around China,” said Tian Juqing, president of Beijing World Olympic Forest Park Development & Operation Co. When it first opened to the public in 2008, the forest park was quite overshadowed by the neighboring Olympic Green (which houses the Beijing National Stadium and the Water Cube), receiving only 10 to 20 percent of all the tourists that visited the Olympic Green.

In the last five years, with the increasing abundance of vegetation in the park and people’s enthusiasm in green ecology, the forest park has welcomed more than 10 million visitors annually, with numbers gradually expanding year by year. Since its opening 10 years ago, the Olympic Forest Park has received 87 million people. Nowadays, people visit the park in the spring for its splendid sea of flowers, and in the autumn to enjoy the red leaves.

Elaborately designed landscapes and sceneries

In March 2002 when the Olympic Forest Park was soliciting its designing schemes publicly, Beijing Tsinghua Tongheng Urban Planning & Design Institute won the contest, with Hu Jie as the chief designer. During the construction process, in order to solve technical problems involving water treatment and the ecology of the park’s plants and animals, Hu invited experts from the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering of Tsinghua University, engineering experts from Beijing Metallurgical Corporation, ecological corridor experts from the U.S., professors from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Biology of Beijing Normal University. They worked together closely to present visitors a well designed and constructed landscape architecture.

The rock hill scenic spot is one of the highlights of the forest park, and much effort was put into its structure. Meng Zhaozhen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at China Forestry University, surveyed many classical rock gardens and studied their shapes, sizes and proportions. He then drew out the structure of the forest park’s rock hill.

Plastic tracks were not included in the forest park in the original design, but now the 5 kilometer-long running track is the most crowed place. As an urban park, the forest park has changed the lifestyles of many people, and quickly become the place where people can relax and enjoy fitness activities.

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