Daning Lingshi Park: Zhabei's New Face

Basic information

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 put up a cultural landmark (Shanghai Circus World, 1999), then an ecological landmark (this park, 2000), 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, Jiuguang Center 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.

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 / Jiuguang Center

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

• 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 faces across Gonghexin Road; tickets are needed for performances, and it is walkable from the park.

Nearby, to see in the same trip

• Daning International Commercial Plaza, Daning Music Plaza, Shanghai Jiuguang Center: three commercial complexes, rising in spending tier one after another;
• Shanghai Circus World (adjoining, 2266 Gonghexin Road): the first landmark of Daning's development;
• 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".

Connections

• Sub-district：Daning Road Subdistrict
• See also：Shanghai Circus World, Daning Road Subdistrict, 8. Thirty Years of Catching Up

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.