Residents in Hohhot will now enjoy a new way of getting in touch
with nature after the city's first wetland park opens its doors in
August.
As the capital city of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hohhot,
meaning "green city" in Mongolian, will celebrate the 60th
anniversary since the autonomous region's founding in August by
opening a vast range of new public facilities including the wetland
park.
The Nanhu Wetland Park has been formed from fishing pools, sand
pits and grasslands, all of which have suffered severe damage by
over-exploitation in the past decade.
In order to reverse this devastated environment, the municipal
government opted to develop a wetland park on the barren land two
years ago. Local geological conditions such as a low topography
optimum for water storage as well as rich groundwater resources
have made this zone perfect for wetland development.
As well as a river running through the area, three other methods
of water diversion exist. The first is to channel water from the
Yellow River, the second is rainwater collection with the final
option being the diversion of recycled water from a nearby sewage
disposal plant.
The wetland park will cover 1,165 hectares with a total
investment of 650 million yuan (US$83.5 million), with 600 hectares
having so far been completed.
To fully tap its different functions, the park is divided into
three districts namely the grassland landscape, wetland landscape,
and riverside development districts.
The grassland landscape district will showcase the culture of
the grasslands such as showing off the Mongolian herdsman way of
life via archery, horse-riding, traditional farming and other
examples. The wetland district will provide a shifting range of
sceneries caused by different water depths, plants and
constructions; while the riverside development district will
welcome investment to help boost the park's financial strength.
(China.org.cn by staff reporter Zhang Tingting, July 25,
2007)
