Residents in Hohhot will now enjoy a new way of getting in touch with nature after the city's first wetland park opens its doors in August.

As the capital city of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Hohhot, meaning "green city" in Mongolian, will celebrate the 60th anniversary since the autonomous region's founding in August by opening a vast range of new public facilities including the wetland park.

The Nanhu Wetland Park has been formed from fishing pools, sand pits and grasslands, all of which have suffered severe damage by over-exploitation in the past decade.

In order to reverse this devastated environment, the municipal government opted to develop a wetland park on the barren land two years ago. Local geological conditions such as a low topography optimum for water storage as well as rich groundwater resources have made this zone perfect for wetland development.

As well as a river running through the area, three other methods of water diversion exist. The first is to channel water from the Yellow River, the second is rainwater collection with the final option being the diversion of recycled water from a nearby sewage disposal plant.

The wetland park will cover 1,165 hectares with a total investment of 650 million yuan (US$83.5 million), with 600 hectares having so far been completed.

To fully tap its different functions, the park is divided into three districts namely the grassland landscape, wetland landscape, and riverside development districts.

The grassland landscape district will showcase the culture of the grasslands such as showing off the Mongolian herdsman way of life via archery, horse-riding, traditional farming and other examples. The wetland district will provide a shifting range of sceneries caused by different water depths, plants and constructions; while the riverside development district will welcome investment to help boost the park's financial strength.

(China.org.cn by staff reporter Zhang Tingting, July 25, 2007)