Shanghai now has 1,100 parks, with a citywide ecological park belt beginning to take shape, local greenery authorities announced on Wednesday.

It reflects steady progress toward Shanghai's goal of becoming a "park city" by 2030. By the end of 2025, per capita public green space had reached 9.5 square meters, up from 8.5 square meters in 2020. Much of that growth came between 2021 and 2025, when the city added 2,573 hectares of new parkland. Nearly 1,000 parks are now open 24 hours.

During the same period, several major projects were completed, including Shanghai Expo Culture Park. Long-established parks such as Century Park, Fuxing Park and Zhongshan Park have also removed perimeter walls, allowing green spaces to blend more closely with surrounding neighborhoods.

Several newly built green spaces have already begun to draw public attention. One of the most anticipated is the water forest at Sanlin Riverside Urban Forest in the Pudong New Area.

Covering about 10.7 hectares, the site is the largest fir wetland landscape within Shanghai's urban area, with roughly 3,500 fir trees planted across the forest.

Construction has largely been completed, and preparations for opening are under way, said Jia Hu, a park operator with Shanghai Land (Group) Co. Trial runs of water and power systems are being carried out to bring facilities such as toilets and parking areas into use, with an official opening planned for the first half of the year.

Sanlin Riverside Urban Forest is part of the larger Sanlin wedge-shaped green area, which is estimated to cover about 420 hectares in total, including 240 hectares of green space – roughly equivalent to two Century Parks.

It reflects a broader shift across the city, as woodland areas that were once visible but inaccessible are increasingly being opened to the public. Shanghai has now built and opened 250 leisure forest sites, many of them in suburban districts.

Some of these forests, including sites in Jinshan, Songjiang and Chongming, offer year-round scenery and are being developed alongside leisure facilities and rural homestays, according to Chen Hui, deputy director of the forestry division at the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau.

"Some of these forests are being transformed into higher-standard rural parks," he added.

The city has also expanded wildlife protection efforts, establishing nine new habitats. Of these, the Chongming Dongtan Migratory Bird Habitat has been designated Shanghai's first World Natural Heritage site.

According to the greenery bureau, it will basically form an urban-rural park system covering the whole area, with improved functions, and an urban forest system with surrounding forest corridors and integration of forest and city, creating a world-class and nationally leading high-quality urban landscape for residents.