Sino-German Ecopark sets model for nation's green practices

An aerial view of Sino-German Ecopark [Photo/IC]

An exemplary project of Sino-German cooperation in the ecological field, the Sino-German Ecopark on the west bank of Jiaozhou Bay in Qingdao city of Shandong province is China's first bilateral demonstration park focusing on ecology.

Since its construction in July 2013, the park has explored the Chinese-style modernization of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, advanced the green practices in ecology, production, and living environment, and realized the dual carbon goals through international cooperation.

The park has won over 20 national honors in low-carbon development, smart cities, and intelligent manufacturing. It is selected as China's only case in the Guideline on Global Green and Prosperous Communities released by Cities Climate Leadership Group, or C40.

Ecological beauty

"We learned from Germany's experiences constructing ecological cities and built an indicator system certified by the German certification company TüV Nord. We have formed a complete set of 46 park planning systems," said Wang Li, deputy director of the management committee at the park.

The park has preserved the original mountains, waterways, and roads and renovated damaged mountains of 180,000 square meters using village demolition and construction waste. It retains the water system, builds a 3-kilometer sponge city area, and constructs low-carbon spaces such as urban farms and pocket parks.

It also boasts energy-efficient buildings in schools, hotels, offices, and residential areas with passive house technologies from Germany. The park has completed 1.07 million sq m of passive houses and reduced 24,500 tons of carbon emissions annually.

Green development

The park has attracted 24 key projects invested by Fortune Global 500 companies, more than 30 leading German companies, and over 4,400 market entities, said Zhang Yunqing, deputy director of the park's management committee.

It has formed an industrial system in intelligent manufacturing, integrated circuits, and genetic technology sectors. It has made breakthroughs in fields including equipment manufacturing of genetic sequencing, advanced chip processes, and intelligent manufacturing platforms.

Its Cosmoplat platform, for instance, has been approved as the nation's first industrial internet platform with over 200 enterprises, providing new development paths for upgraded supply models in the low-carbon era; and Haier's 4.0 industrial base in the park is laying out and constructing 5G application scenarios in 16 fields.

Sharing a better life

The park is forming a healthy, economic, and low-carbon lifestyle by applying zero-carbon concepts in construction, energy, transport, finance, and culture.

The 820,000-sq-m Sino-German Future City will become the park's first "zero-carbon test area" to utilize renewable energy such as solar, geothermal, and air energy. It is to reduce carbon emissions by approximately 45,000 tons annually and save 20 million kilowatt-hours of electricity.

The park has built an ecological corridor with a reserved width of 1,500 m, protecting habitats and biodiversity and maintaining ecological functions such as soil and water conservation.