Gongqing Forest Park

　Situated in the Yangpu District of Shanghai, Gongqing Forest Park is bordered by Huangpu River on the east and Jungong Road on the west. Occupying a total space of 1965 mu（131 hectares）, it has a grass-and-tree- covered area of 1870.6 mu open to the public. On its northern side is Gongqing Forest Park with an area of 1631 mu. On its southern side is the Bamboo Garden covering 239.6 mu. It is the only park in the city proper that has a unique forest scenery.
　The park site used to be a piece of Huangpu River beachland. In 1956, Shanghai People’s Government called on the masses to dredge the river and turned its silt into a tree nursery. In 1958, Youth League Secretary Hu Yaobang led a group of youth activists attending a national conference in Shanghai to plant a variety of fruit trees and set up a youth experimental orchard named Gongqing Nursery. At the beginning of 1982, as one of the major projects to increase public green areas in the city, the northern part of the nursery was transformed into Gonging Forest Park. In March 1986, President Jiang Zemin, the then Shanghai mayor, came to the park to plant trees and wrote the inscription “Greenize Shanghai to benefit the people”. In October that year, the park was open to the public. At the end of 1995, the southern part of the nursery was turned into the Bamboo Garden , which opened two years later.
　Gongqing Forest Park, the north garden, is known for its botanic scenes, with nearly 200,000 trees and over 200 species. It has hills, lawns, lakes, streams, woods, and bamboo groves, forming a natural serene area full of idyllic appeal. It boasts 10 major scenic spots, such as Cedar Grove, Jungle, Mirroring Water, Commemorative Tree-planting Garden, Horse Riding, displaying a special forest scene of naturalness, peacefulness and wildness. It is also equipped with over 30 entertainment facilities for tourists to have wildness, adventure, sporting, excitement, and leisure experiences. In addition, it has its holiday and conference facilities such as holiday inns and multipurpose halls, offering tourists a natural, peaceful and comfortable place with clear and fresh air.
　The South Garden is a theme park of bamboo culture and has created a lovely bamboo scenery in the south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The garden, with its undulating landscape, green hillocks, dense groves, clear streams, little bridges, flowing water, and fragrant bamboos, is the first ecologically-designed recreational greenland in Shanghai.
　Gonging Forest Park is a holiday resort where people can enjoy its unique natural wildness within the city. Since 1997 it has been one of the model units and new tourist attractions in Shanghai.