City Green Heart, located on the south side of the administrative office area of Beijing Sub Center, with a total area of about 11.2 square kilometers, is an important node showing ecological civilization construction on the corridor of urban public space.

By implementing measures such as ecological management and soil restoration in the former Oriental Chemical Plant area, this project aims to restore ecological diversity, build urban green lungs, setting up a world-class model of ecological restoration. By gathering a number of important public service facilities, the planner creates a functionally complex and vibrant civic center serving the residents of the city. Through the perfect combination of oriental garden aesthetics and modern architectural ideas, the park manages to inherit historical context and form a new landmark of Beijing culture that reflects the time spirit.

Named with "Oriental Green Star“, the Urban Green Heart takes “A forest benefiting for life” as its planning vision and strives to become an urban forest combining “thousands acres of urban forest, millions of canopy trees, hundreds of native plants, 24 scenery windows themed with traditional solar terms , and four seasonal avenues“ as one.

After completion, the Green Heart as the ecological core of the sub-center of Beijing will not only be an open and shared civic vitality center, but also a cultural gathering area that embodies oriental wisdom and Chinese context, and it will also become a demonstration area of ecological governance.

In the future, the Urban Green Heart Forest Park will gather a number of public facilities such as museums, theaters, and libraries, so that residents can get spiritual food and enjoy a better life in this open green space and oxygen bar.

The spatial framework of the Green Heart is "one core“ —— the ​​ecological conservation area, "two rings“ —— the dynamic vitality ring and the forest recreation ring, "three belts“ —— the Grand Canal cultural belt, the historical canal landscape belt and the High Line Park belt. The total green area of the Green Heart will exceed 10,000 acres, of which 8400 acres are newly added permanent green land, and 1700 acres of land to be developed will be planted simultaneously as temporary green area.

The "one core" is an ecological conservation area, with a total area of ​​1,200 acres, like a giant pentagram inlaid on the bank of the Grand Canal. The core area is located in the heart of the Green Heart, used to be the site of Beijing Oriental Chemical Factory which had been in operation for nearly 40 years. In 1984, China ’s first acrylic acid and esters production unit imported from Japan was constructed and put into production here. Since then, the long-term dependence on imports of this kind of product had ended, which is one of the epitome of the great industry development of Beijing after the reform and opening-up. However, with the upgrading and updating of industry, the Oriental Chemical Plant had shut down in 2012. To transform the former chemical plant to a green heart of the city is to implement ecological restoration by phytoremediation. The periphery will be isolated by plants. At the same time, the gate area, roads and building foundations of the plant will be retained. The old industry site will become a Botanical Paradise. At present, after soil remediation and special groundwater treatment, pollutants produced by chemical plants have been basically eliminated. The area will use near natural ecological restoration strategies to create stable and various jungle plant communities, forming areas with the most abundant biodiversity and biological habitat, while reducing manual intervention and restricting visitors' access. In other words, ecological methods will be used to solve ecological problems —— using natural vitality to repair heavily polluted areas and restore natural ecosystems.

The "two rings" are closely attached to the "one core". The first refers to a five-star-shaped dynamic vitality ring which is a 70-kilometre-long green road that surrounds the core area, connecting five major functional areas and green open space. The other is a characteristic linear "forest ring“ basically shaped by perennial trees and connected with 24 scenery windows themed with traditional solar terms, presenting the four-season forest landscape.

The 5.5-kilometer-long star-shaped fitness trail ring consists of an 8-meter-wide cycling trail and a 3-meter-wide pedestrian trail. This is a pentagram-shaped road built in accordance with municipal road standards. A total of 6000 trees will be planted in 6 rows along the road, and rest spots of varying area will be set in the middle. It will become a colorful boulevard for citizens to ride, walk and run, as well as the most important functional belt of the green heart.

The ring themed with the 24 traditional solar terms injects traditional Chinese culture into the green heart. On the two sides of the star-shaped fitness trail, 24 nodes will be arranged according to the 24 traditional solar terms. Each node selects a solar tree representing the seasonal phenology, such as toon, elm, mangosteen, magnolia, etc., supplemented by solar-themed landscape decoration and culture signs. Through the seasonal changes of plants, culture characteristics of landscape decoration and solar-themed activities, visitors can experience the profound heritage of traditional Chinese ecological culture.

The "three belts" includes the Grand Canal cultural belt, the historical canal landscape belt and the High Line Park belt. The "five areas" are consisted of the sports area, the stormwater area, the science popularization area, the cultural area, and the civic area. Among them, the cultural area will be equipped with three major public cultural facilities, including the Beijing Library, Beijing Museum, and Beijing Theater. The "three belts" will become the spatial framework of the green heart, containing the combined functions of ecological conservation, leisure activities, tourism and cultural popularization.