Daning Lingshi Park and Shanghai Circus World: Zhabei's New Face
Daning Lingshi Park
Basic information
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Daning Lingshi Park (often shortened to "Daning Park") |
| Location | The area of Daning Road sub-district, Jing'an District (formerly Zhabei) |
| Construction began | 2000 |
| Scale | Contains Daning Lake, with a water area of 68,000 m² |
| Keywords | city green lung, inside the Middle Ring, the core of the Daning commercial and cultural centre |
A green space that did not appear until 2000
Daning Lingshi Park was not begun until 2000.
Before it, Daning was "a great stretch of land between factories and farmland". What Zhabei did here was develop it in a single piece: first plant an ecological landmark (Lingshi Park), then a cultural landmark (Circus World), then commerce (Daning International), and finally industry (Daning Music Plaza).
A much-quoted line is used to judge Daning today:
Inside the Middle Ring, with half a century park in hand, Daning on the same latitude is a large urban green lung unique in all Shanghai.
"Half a century park" refers to the park's sheer size — a green space on the order of 680,000 m² is rare in Shanghai's central city area.
Daning Lake
Daning Lake is the park's core water body, with a water area of 68,000 m². It was the only large lake in the former Zhabei District (the figure "the lake count 1, area 560,000 m²" in the statistics on Zhabei's water bodies follows a different basis, referring to a different statistical scope; see below).
A note on the figures: the statistics on Zhabei District's water bodies record "Daning Lake, 1 lake, water area 68,000 m²", while other material records "one lake, area 560,000 m²" (possibly including the lake area and its surroundings). This book adopts the 68,000 m² water-area basis.
Daning Park today
Daning Park's positioning today is a demonstration model of "the city and the park without boundaries" (according to the Jing'an District People's Government's reply to a proposal by municipal people's congress deputies):
- promoting permeable walls, linked greenways and embedded functions;
- laying out cultural stations, rest points and other support facilities;
- coordinating and activating the space within the park, enriching "park + performance" and "park + sports" themed activities;
- through tree-lined avenues, greenways, overhead corridors and underpasses, linking Daning Park with Shanghai Circus World, the Jiu Guang Centre and other important nodes.
That is to say, Daning Park is not a "walled-off park" but one to be opened up to the surrounding commercial, cultural and sports venues. This approach is fairly new among Shanghai's park redevelopments.
Shanghai Circus World
Basic information
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | Shanghai Circus World (including the middle theatre) |
| Opened | 1999 |
| Location | The Gonghexin Road area (the Daning quarter) |
| Keywords | a performance landmark, the "performance cluster around Circus World" |
It came a year before the park
Note the order of time: Shanghai Circus World opened in 1999; Daning Lingshi Park was begun in 2000.
Performance came first, the park after. That order shows Zhabei's thinking at the time: first put up a cultural facility that could draw the whole city, and so establish the "reason" for this patch of land; then build the park, the commerce, the housing.
Circus World today
According to materials from the Jing'an District People's Government, Circus World is still being upgraded:
- promoting the upgrading and redevelopment of Shanghai Circus World's middle theatre and new performance spaces;
- building the "performance cluster around Circus World";
- creating immersive comprehensive performance venues drawing on Daning Park.
Acrobatics, circus, performance — this is Daning's cultural main line.
A complete portrait of one quarter
Join up the dots in Daning Road sub-district and you see why Zhabei treats it as a "success story":
1999 Shanghai Circus World opens ← culture
2000 Daning Lingshi Park begun ← ecology
2000 Daning commercial and cultural centre lands ← commerce
2000 Daning International Commercial Plaza opens ← commerce
2006 The new Daning centre takes shape ← ten years to grind one sword
2008 Daning Group founded ← industry
Daning Music Plaza / the Lingshi Road e-sports belt / the Jiu Guang Centre
Three commercial complexes + one green lung + one performance landmark + one industrial belt make up Daning today.
And it has drawn a large population from other districts — residents of Bunye Cheng, Baoshan, Hongkou and Yangpu have all come to buy homes in Daning.
Practical tips
Daning Lingshi Park
- Suggested time 1–2 hours;
- good for walking, running, looking at the lake or the hills (Lingshi Park has an artificial hill);
- open free (subject to official notice).
Shanghai Circus World
- Tickets are needed for performances; schedules are subject to official channels;
- walkable from Daning Park (the two are adjacent).
Nearby, to see in the same trip
- Daning International Commercial Plaza, Daning Music Plaza, the Shanghai Jiu Guang Centre: three commercial complexes, rising in spending tier one after another;
- Lingshi Road: the e-sports industrial belt;
- Shibei Hi-Tech Park (to the north): a representative of Zhabei's industrial transformation;
- Zhabei Park (to the south): the old park, with the tomb of Song Jiaoren.
Daning + Zhabei Park can be put together into a "Zhabei park route".
Sources: the development history follows NetEase's The Rise and the Ceiling of Daning; the present state of the park and the performance facilities follows the Jing'an District People's Government's reply to proposal no. 0314 at the fourth session of the 16th Municipal People's Congress; the lake figures follow the water-body statistics in the Wikipedia/Wikiwand entry "Zhabei District". The full bibliography is in Appendix 4.