Yunxi Botanical Garden is a cornerstone initiative advancing China’s national strategies for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in Guangzhou. As a critical hub within the city’s “1+3+N” urban-park integration framework, the garden designer’s vision is to forge a comprehensive network that seamlessly integrates plant conservation, scientific research, public education, and immersive visitor experiences. It stands as a pioneering model for harmonizing national botanical resources with the accessibility of a community park.
Guided by the principles of “Urban-Nature Integration, Ecological Coexistence, and Public Accessibility,” AECOM team collaborated with local partners to deliver a comprehensive landscape design for Yunxi Botanical Garden’s environmental enhancement.
After three years of dedicated work, the garden now features a natural education center, five specialized botanical display gardens, and three ecological leisure trails. It stands as a cherished green oasis, embraced by residents and visitors as a premier urban retreat.
City + Forest
Located at the western foot of Baiyun Mountain — Guangzhou’s “central green lung,” — the garden covers a core area of approximately 35 hectares. Originally opened as Yunxi Park in 1999, the site underwent essential revitalization to align with the city’s evolution post-airport relocation, Baiyun New City development, and metro expansion. Today, it serves as both a gateway for locals to discover wilderness experiences and an elevated recreational destination enhancing Baiyun Mountain’s appeal.
Ecology + Art
The design skillfully integrates ecological water management and Nature-based Solutions (NbS), reshaping the site’s natural topography while implementing inclusive, all-ages accessibility. Artistic structures, innovative botanical displays, and “nature-art exhibitions” foster community engagement, stimulate economic value, and ensure the park’s sustained vitality.
Key Highlights
01 Blurring Urban-Nature Boundaries
- A redesigned 350-meter permeable interface seamlessly stitches the garden into the urban fabric. This transformation optimizes main entry circulation while establishing vital visual corridors that weave creek flows, terraced waterfalls, and mountain vistas into the cityscape, achieving harmony among mountain, garden, water, and city.
02 Reviving Ecosystems
- Restored Hydrological Connectivity: Reconnected fragmented water systems, harnessing natural topographic gradients to create terraced cascades — forming a 600-meter accessible streamside trail with micro-wetland clusters that boost biodiversity;
- Enhanced Habitat Mosaic: Upgraded forest structures by introducing five specialized gardens (featuring nectar plants, water lilies and rare species), restored a critical 130m-wide, 7-10m-deep ecological discontinuity zone, and redesigned wetland edges using ecological grass banks to create seamless transitional habitats for migratory waterbirds and wetland fauna.
03 Sense of Place: Lingnan Unfolded
- Yunxi Courtyard: Embodies traditional Lingnan gardening principles, masterfully “shaping spaces through terrain and framing views through borrowed scenery” to achieve poetic unity where the courtyard dissolves into the landscape and the landscape embraces the courtyard, epitomizing the spatial philosophy of “expansiveness within intimacy”.
- Rainbow Bridge: An arched landmark blending classical form with modern aesthetics.
04 Dynamic Engagement
- Reserved flexible spaces host diverse activities such as nature-art exhibitions, ecological workshops, and corporate events, effectively catering to visitors with varied interests.
- Within its first year of opening, the garden attracted triple the number of visitors, with youth engagement significantly rising to 30%, establishing a new model for urban ecological vitality.
Social Impact
Transcending the traditional role of a botanical garden, Yunxi Botanical Garden employs a unique “Landscape Integration + Nature-Centric Operations” model. It has successfully hosted prestigious international events, including diplomatic forums and garden expos.
Serving as an urban oasis where citizens connect with nature and experience Lingnan culture, the garden exemplifies China’s innovative approach to harmonizing ecological conservation with urban development.
For more details: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Se1lwXO3r_FOmP-R9NrQFA
Photo credits: AECOM / Yunxi Botanical Garden Administration / Guangzhou Landscape Architectural Design & Research Institute / Architectural Design & Research Institute of SCUT