Lucky green clouds to shroud Tiananmen
- Source: Global Times
- [08:37 March 25 2011]
- Comments
Workers install irrigation pipes at Tiananmen Square Wednesday. Photo: CFP
By Yang Jie
Tiananmen Square is getting a green makeover as landscapers install new shrubbery pruned in the shape of "auspicious clouds" on the plaza's east and west lawns.
Hundreds of new shrubs, mainly consisting of 80 centimeter-tall Japanese spindles, are set to adorn the 9,600-square-meter lawns flanking the east and west sides of the square.
The finished landscaping is expected to be unveiled in May.
The shrubs will be pruned into "auspicious cloud" shapes, the same that appear on the Beijing Olympic torch, and be illuminated at night.
It is the first time that the 44-hectare square will be adorned with permanent landscaping features.
"We're not expanding the greenbelts, only re-landscaping," said a publicity officer surnamed Fang from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry.
The lawns have been fenced off and their grass removed as of Thursday.
Previously the lawns were cleared of their grass and decorated with temporary flowerbed displays during large-scale events such as National Day celebrations.
"[The green space] will remain unchanged in the future except during some important political events," said Yang Zhihua, urban landscaping chief of the landscape and forestry bureau, told the Beijing News. "The flower beds might also be phased out," he added.
"Maintenance costs will also be reduced, as the plants are drought-resistant and require much less water than lawns do," said Chen Junqi, a forestry expert at the Beijing Forestry and Parks Department of International Cooperation.
Chen explained that the shrubs would also play an important role in alleviating the "heat island effect" in the area.
Tiananmen Square is seeing an increasingly greener view. Apart from the original pines and greenbelts around the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall and the Monument to the People's Heroes, two lawns covering an area of 9,600 square meters, symbolizing China's 9.6-million-square-kilometer territory, were installed in 1999, according to the Beijing News.
However some feel the changes unnecessary.
"Maybe authorities are going to remove the shrubs someday like they did with those 56 huge pillars," said a 29-year-old woman surnamed Huang.
When the Global Times reporter asked to talk to lanscaping bureau division chief surnamed Yang for more details, Fang refused by saying "he doesn't want to comment at the moment in order to avoid misunderstandings."
