A municipal model ecological project in outer Jiading district is running smoothly at the current time, and an area of 210,000 square meters has been completed out of a total area of 726,000 sq m square meters. 300,000 sq m is still under construction and the whole project is expected to be finished next year.

Jiading ecological project started in 2008 as part of the Shanghai ecological project phase II, which lies north of the Shanghai-Nanjing railway, south to the Wusong River, east to theS20 expressway and next to Chapu River on the west side, approximately 3.7 kilometer in length in a north-south direction.

The design philosophy of the building company, Jiading city development group, is to create a complex ecological engineering project. In addition to building a shelter belt as an ecological barrier between 100 and 500 meters wide, the builder has also carved out a public green zone which will take up nearly two-thirds of the total construction area.

According to a Jiading news report, Taopu road has had the green space on both sides partially completed. Trees and rivers complement the undulating footpath, and an officer from the general contractor said the designer had slightly modified the original landscape, adding to the overall three-dimensional beauty of the landscape.

“Such a design not only saves resources, but also sets a good natural drainage system for the surroundings,” said the officer, “Various kinds of vegetation have been planted, such as camphor, privet, metasequoia and wintercreeper, forming a "plant community".

The officer explained there are more than 10 types of trees belonging to ecological protected spaces, which could help in fireproofing as well as lower the noise and sand levels.

In public green spaces, these 20-plus species of plants embellish the outer ring forests with their vitality and color.

“The construction group is very cautious in the selection of plant species, and we attach great importance to time-staggering their growing periods, in order to keep the scene attractive with seasonal plants,” said the officer, “Rhododendron always bloom in April, and May is the flower season for Viburnum macrocephalum. That is the way we plan things.”

In addition, considering the affordable maintenance costs, the selected plants are mostly local species since these have the highest survival rate, and the areas of trees and shrubs cover over 90 percent of the total green zone.

With the advancement of the current project, the ecological environment of south Jiading has been given a noticeable improvement, with some wild birds such as egrets and pigeons already having discovered the area.