A Beijing creek which was built more than 40 years ago has been uncovered and restored as a park, which opened to the public Saturday.
It is one of the city's efforts to improve its environment with more streams and green areas in preparation for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The park covers 3.8 hectares outside the east wall of the Forbidden City. The creek was reshaped as 510 meters long and 12 meters wide, with an average depth of 1.5 to two meters.
The creek, Changpu, or Flagleaf, originates in a lake in the west of the Forbidden City and runs south and then east in front of Tiananmen gate. It was covered in the 1960s to build warehouses and homes.
The city government spent 500 million yuan (US$60 million) on the restoration project, which took six months.
On the creek banks stand 60 preserved old trees with newly planted grass and flowers.
(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2002)
