BEIJING: A recent public discussion in Southwest Shanghai’s Minhang district, where more than 300 community representatives gathered to talk about preparations for the district’s largest park to be open around the clock, was the latest example of whole-process people’s democracy in the city.
The discussion on Jan 29 focused on how to enable 24-hour access to Minhang Culture Park, which is nearly the size of 120 soccer fields. Issues addressed included how to designate the park areas to be open at night, how to ensure visitors’ safety and how to provide the best visitor experience at nighttime.
Along with local legislators and political advisers, participants also included representatives from the district government, media, the park authority, and academia. Some representatives of nearby residential areas, schools, and commercial areas also took part in the three-hour discussion. It was organized by the district’s legislative body and political advisory body with the aim of putting whole-process people’s democracy into practice and collecting people’s ideas and wisdom to better make decisions related to public affairs.
Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng said in late January that becoming a park city is not simply a matter of building more parks, but means turning the city into a large-scale park and striving to realize the unbounded integration of parks and urban space. Shanghai opened another 162 parks — including pocket parks — last year, bringing the city’s total to 832. It aims to have 1,000 parks by the end of next year.
Parks have been encouraged to better integrate sports, culture, and tourism functions, and to extend opening hours. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
