The Olympic Forest Park can breathe easy -- sundered into two byan expressway, it will now have an ecological corridor joiningit.

A Green Corridor built by the year-end over Beijing's NorthFifth Ring Road will link the southern and northern parts of theforest park, a Games landmark.

The wildlife can freely roam the entire park using the bridge --and so can you.

"In order to make the two parts of the Olympic Forest Park awhole ecosystem, we decided to set up a green corridor astride theroad," said Hu Jie, director of the Landscape Planning and DesignInstitute affiliated to the Urban Planning and Design Institute ofTsinghua University, and also chief designer of the Olympic ForestPark.

"Although the design has been revised many times, the corridorremains."

Hills and lakes will be concentrated in the south of the park,which covers 680 hectares. The north will be covered by naturallandscapes. The construction work on the park started in 2003 andis well under way.

To make the park a whole, the designers conceptualized thecorridor above the road. "In the original design during the firstround of bidding for the park, there was a huge mountain in thenorth and the main lake in the south," Hu said. "A long slope wasto start from the lake area to the mountain above the road to linkthe two parts.

"But after careful scrutiny, we found that if we put themountain in the north, it would need large quantities of earthworkto make it visible from the south. So we finally decided to havethe mountain and lake together in the south."

The idea of a green corridor came up during the second round ofbidding. According to the final plan, it is 200 meters long and 60to 100 meters wide, with a layer of soil 1-3 meters deep.

A quarter of the corridor will be planted with tall arbor, whilethe rest will be covered by shrubs and low arbor.

"The whole corridor will be covered in green," Hu said. "Formotorists driving under the corridor, the green bridge will bevisually stunning."

The whole project is so complex that it is hard for oneorganization to handle. The design has been completed by Hu's teamand Beijing Beilin Landscape Architecture Institute affiliated tothe Beijing Forestry University will be in charge of the projectdrawing. Beijing Urban Engineering Design and Research InstituteCo. Ltd will take charge of designing the bridge.

As the first of its kind in China, the bridge posed manytechnical challenges to the designers, such as controlling itsweight and preventing frostbite for the plants.

They were solved by interacting with "consultants to similarprojects overseas and experts from home and abroad," Hu said. "Inthe design of a park in China, we seldom meet such a complexsituation."

Example for green Beijing

Located at the north end of Beijing's central axis, the conceptof the Olympic Forest Park is called "Axis to Nature".

During the Beijing Games, the tennis, archery and hockey eventswill be staged in the park, which is also expected to be a "backgarden" for the Games.

Ten times large as the Beijing's Beihai Park, the oldest andmost complete extant imperial garden in the capital, the forestpark is believed to benefit the city's environment.

"Since the density of plants is high in the park, it will help alot in improving the air quality and reducing air pollution," saidHu, who worked for Sasaki Association in the United States beforehe came back to China for the Olympic project.

"We are now doing research on the long-term impact that the parkwill have on Beijing, which may take up to 10 years."

Hu admitted that one such park won't solve the city's pollutionwoes but it "will make a great contribution to the green land inBeijing and provide useful data for future city planning."

"It will serve as a guide for improving Beijing's ecology."

After the Games, the park will be open to the public and some facilities will be added, such as restaurants and playingfacilities for children.

But Hu was quick to promise that man-made facilities would notdestroy the natural condition of the park.

"There will still be large green places; and only battery carsare allowed to get to the game facilities or playgrounds while allmotor-driven vehicles park outside."

(China Daily January 22, 2007)