Green Acres?
Some people really think Shanghai is a “Garden City”
NOTE: A version of this story appears in the June issue of that’s Shanghai magazine.
by DAN WASHBURN
To most people in Shanghai, green is the color your face turns when the city’s air is at its most acrid. But Shanghai officials hope to force the color from your face and stick it in the ground … tree after tree after tree. They are overseeing a greening of Shanghai’s acres that would make Oliver Wendell Douglas proud. And soon — maybe even late this year — this concrete jungle will officially be known as a “Garden City.” Believe it or not, the Shanghai Landscaping Administration Bureau claims that at the end of last year Shanghai was 30 percent green space. The goal is to have that figure at 35 percent by the end of this year, which would satisfy one requirement for the Construction Ministry of China’s “Garden City” status. This begs the logical question: Where exactly is all of this green space? Well, you may be standing on some right now and not even know it.
05.30.2003, 4:33 PM · Politics, Stories · Comments (3)
