Baiteng Mt overlooking the Jinwan Interchange of Zhuhai Avenue and Huxin Road in Hongqi Town is being repurposed from a quarry into a wetland park to exemplify Sponge City concepts.

Expected to open free to the public by National Day, Oct 1, the 10.9-hectare (26.9-acre) Baiteng Mt Ecologically Restored Wetland Park is benefitting from afforestation and ecological repair. Vast expanses of reed and purple fountain grass are interspersed with red leaves of cordyline fruticosa. Plank roads offer scenes of tranquil water bustling with fish and of birds in the clear blue sky.

Entrance to Baiteng Mt Ecologically Restored Wetland Park

The natural beauty of unspoiled parts of the mountain and lake just west of the intersection makes for a characteristic landscape. And the park’s special appeal is also due to a rainwater storage system that functions from source to utilization.

Basketball courts

Rainwater from the mountain and roads will be collected, purified, and discharged into the lake where there will be an overflow barrier. The rainwater will be reused for irrigation, according to an official at the Jinwan District Housing & Urban-Rural Development Bureau.

The park will also have ecological grass ditches, wet ponds, rain gardens, streams, and tree pools for display, explanation, and physical activities. It is to become an education base to illustrate the concept of a Sponge City to the public.

Purple fountain grass in summer breeze [Photos by Li Changxuan / Zhuhai Daily]

Also available will be a seven-a-side soccer field, two basketball courts, extreme-sports field, sports facilities, parking lots, fitness and leisure squares, children's entertainment venues, ecological wetlands, viewing platforms, and leisure stations.

Major works will be completed in September, according to a project head.