Yangpu Park, a park with a long history in Shanghai, has recently shown new changes. In a&\\;nbsp\\;newly opened space of more than 100 square meters in the park, visitors can have their blood pressure measured free of charge, watch plant-themed exhibitions, and look back at the history of greening and gardening in Yangpu Park and other parts of Shanghai. There is also a "\\;children's fun house"\\; for temporary care of children, which facilitates two-job families in the surrounding areas.It is a park, but it is also far more than that. The new idea of multifunctional superposition similar to that of "\\;Park plus"\\; will be implemented in more public spaces in Shanghai.Shanghai will further improve the quality of its urban construction management, carry out "\\;Park plus"\\;, Road plus"\\; and "\\;Life circle plus"\\; projects, and work hard on details to create warm and touching "\\;urban expressions"\\;.Creating "\\;tiered” green with the injection of cultural elementsFor most people, the first thing to evaluate the "\\;look"\\; of a city is not its economic figures, but the communities visible outside of the window, the street views passing by and the parks for relaxed strolls.Scarce land resources and high population density make it impossible for Shanghai to create more public space through the unlimited expansion of urban areas. As a result, the breakthrough point lies in injecting into the limited space as many functions as possible.The true identity of the new space in Yangpu Park is actually Shanghai’s first citizen gardening center that functions to serve Party members and citizens and provide gardening guidance. Recently, a "\\;plant clinic"\\; has been added to the space. In all, 12 community gardeners in Yangpu District take turns to "\\;man” the clinic and offer advice on green plant maintenance.Parks that take root in local communities and provide down-to-earth services have also become a window to promote culture and art. Recently, Shanghai Art and Design Academy reached a cooperation agreement with Tianshan Park to disseminate traditional dyeing and weaving techniques. "\\;We have long had the idea of further 'activating' traditional dyeing and weaving techniques,"\\; said Cang Ping, President of Shanghai Art and Design Academy. In the future, Tianshan Park can expand its interactive functions to popularize the scientific knowledge of dyeing plants and weaving plants, so that citizens will have the opportunity to get to know and love dyeing, weaving and other traditional craftsmanship.Shanghai’s goal is to build more than 100 parks a year and bring the total number of its parks to over 2,000 by 2035. All these parks will fully live up to public expectations of various park functions, such as adding cultural and sports elements and leisure facilities, paying attention to garden design, and so on.Wang Yefei, Deputy Director of the Landscaping and City Appearance Administrative Bureau of Changning District, said that culture and art are both big concepts. He recognized the need for further opinion canvassing and guidance concerning what specific functions to attach to parks so that they can be popular with residents of all age groups. The most important thing is to listen to the voices of residents who live around the parks.Creating pleasant mobility space through innovative ideasThe University Road in Yangpu District is adjacent to many colleges and universities in Shanghai. The numerous open-air cafes, cultural and book bars, characteristic restaurants, bars, creative retail and other small shops along the street have become new places for innovators, entrepreneurs and young people to meet and discuss ideas.Innovation is the secret behind the attractiveness of the University Road. In its reconstruction, equal attention was paid to the “hard and soft aspects”. In light of the open neighborhood design philosophy, the park walls were removed and the pedestrian walkways were widened to enhance integration between the park, campuses and local residential areas. Efforts were made to listen to the opinions of local merchants and residents. An innovative business model of “outdoor stalls” was developed, so that people can eat and chat outdoors. At the same time, a neighborhood self-administration committee was also established to jointly manage relevant road affairs, making it a popular road for merchants and visitors.Roads connect communities and neighborhoods. They are the capillaries of a city and undertake not merely the passageway function. Shanghai will deepen the "\\;Road Plus"\\; Project, take into account of local ecology, business format, style and furniture items, and strive to create one view for one street in an all-round way and shape city expressions with comprehensive elements.Shanghai has made preliminary explorations in this regard. In the past four years, overhead power lines have been resorted, with a total of 567 kilometers of roads in the city realigned to incorporate more functions. According to the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, all the newly erected integrated road poles have reserved spaces in them for carrying the power, communication capacity and facilities required for digital urban transformation. In the sorting of overhead power lines, all road surfaces, well covers, facilities and urban furniture items were upgraded and reconstructed to uplift the urban outlook in all elements.Last year, the surrounding areas of the old municipal government building with a history of nearly 100 years suddenly became a wider open space. All the urban overhead power lines that had been there for decades were buried underground. Redundant road poles and boxes around the old government building were also removed to release pedestrian space. Additionally, the sidewalks and driveways in the surrounding blocks were comprehensively renovated. The sidewalks were newly paved with cyan gray granite, which is more in line with the architectural style of the Bund and well creates a profound sense of history. Adopting the same approach, Shanghai has also built a number of popular sites, including the “Site of &\\;nbsp\\;First CPC National Congress – Xintiandi&\\;nbsp\\;Shanghai” and the "\\;Cao Yang Hong - Cao Yang Community"\\;.The detailed innovations have a strong power to enhance the warmth and vitality of Shanghai.On Panyu Road, the public seats and the windowsills of the small booths behind them are reconstructed by wrapping cement with wooden board and spreading Ophiopogon japonicus seeds on it, so that senior citizens can sit on the seats for relaxed chat in winter. The green belts on both sides of the gate of Xinhua Road Post Office are embedded with a corner bench each to allow people to have barrier-free contact with flowers, plants and trees.Similar seats are constantly appearing on the streets across Shanghai. Last year, the department of landscaping and city appearance issued The Work Plan for the Improvement and Optimization of Rest Seats in Public Spaces in Shanghai, calling for solving the problems of "\\;no place to sit on"\\;, "\\;too small space for sitting down"\\; and "\\;unsuitability for sitting down"\\; in public spaces in three years. By the end of last year, Shanghai had upgraded 9,508 public seats, and another 5,000 seats are planned for upgrading this year.Shanghai has fully mobilized social co-governance forces to participate in the management and maintenance of the newly upgraded public seats. "\\;Many citizens have inquired about channels through which they can subscribe as public seat maintainers,"\\; said Wang Yongwen, Head of the City Appearance Division of the Shanghai Landscaping and City Appearance Administrative Bureau. In the future, Shanghai will set up a seat subscription and maintenance fund to receive public donations and adopt a public welfare fund approach for public seat management and supervision to ensure fairness and transparency.Adjusting measures to local conditions to connect the “last mile” of public servicesBuilt in the 1950s, the Cao Yang Community is the first new workers' village in New China. Its use functions have gradually lagged behind the times. In the renovation process, a high line park reconstructed from a local railway line rises along the residential area, which is connected with Huanbang, Caoyang Park, Zaoyang Park and Lanxi Youth Park and other water drainages and greens to form an ecological network, with people's life rooms, basketball courts and other public activity areas dotted in-between. Next to the community, the community canteen of the Party and Masses Service Center in the Wuning area is open to local residents, who can enjoy corresponding services within 15 minutes' walk from home.A time scale of 15 minutes can also be used to measure the convenience and happiness of life in today's Shanghai.In 2016, Shanghai pioneered the concept of "\\;15min community life circle"\\; in China, which requires the provision of basic service functions and public activity space for life within 15 minutes’ walk of nearby residents. By the end of last year, more than 180 such projects had been implemented.For rural areas with relatively spare infrastructures, Shanghai also put forward the concept of "\\;rural community life circle"\\; at the end of 2021 to cater to the needs of villages and villagers. The most obvious difference between the two life circles above lies in the expansion of the service radius of the "\\;15min"\\; time scale and the allocation of services at the two levels of "\\;administrative village"\\; and "\\;natural village"\\;. The service radius at the natural village level (rural neighborhood center) is 300~500 meters, which mainly provides doorstep services, while the service radius at the administrative village level (rural convenience center) is 800~1,000 meters, which can provide integrated services over a wider area, such as the activity space and public service facilities required by elderly people and children.As an all-new concept, the "\\;rural community life circle"\\; is now being piloted in Zhangyan Village in Qingpu and Haishen Village in Pudong. During the 14th&\\;nbsp\\;Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai will press ahead with the construction of "\\;Rural Convenience Service Centers"\\; and "\\;Neighborhood Post Stations"\\; in combination with the construction of rural revitalization demonstration villages, the piloting of all-area comprehensive territorial improvement and the renewal of reserved villages. Efforts will be made to create a number of "\\;model rural community life circles"\\; with Shanghai characteristics and high demonstration value.Shanghai will continue to forge ahead with the "\\;Life Circles Plus"\\; Project and combine it with the construction of beautiful neighborhoods, beautiful homes and beautiful villages to develop better integrated service functions, build a living environment of higher quality, stage more popular cultural activities, and connect the “last mile” of services for the people.&\\;nbsp\\;Source: Qi Yingpu and Chen Xihan,&\\;nbsp\\;Jiefang Daily&\\;nbsp\\;