Kunming Ecological Infrastructure and Greenways Kunming, China 2010 Turenscape www.turenscape.com
The city of Kunming has a population of approximately 6 million people and is the capital of Yunnan Province in South West China. Kunming’s strategic location as the hub of transport links to South East Asia enabled the city to become the cultural, political and economic seat of provincial government serving 45 million people. The city stands at an elevation of 1900 metres above sea level in the heart of the Yunnan-Guizhou plateau and at latitude just north of the tropic of Cancer. Consequently the sub-tropical highland climate has earned Kunming the title of the ‘City of Eternal Spring’. Not surprisingly, Kunming is an important Chinese horticultural centre from which magnolias; azaleas, lilies and orchids are exported worldwide. The fertile plateau also produces important grain, vegetable and fruit crops. The ‘pearl of the plateau’ is Dianchi Lake, the sixth largest freshwater lake in China which lies to the south of the city and is connected to the Song Hua Ba reservoir in the north by the 23 kilometre stretch of the Pan Long River that passes through the city of Kunming. This idyllic landscape is surrounded by limestone hills rising
above the plateau and has evidence of settlements dating from 279 BC. The modern city of Kunming began to grow and prosper with the arrival of the railway link from Hanoi in 1910. Since that time successive phases of development have taken their toll on the source of all life, the water systems that sustain the region. The most recent rapid growth of urban development (Fig. 2) has substantially decreased the permeable areas of the city increasing the general risk from flooding, particularly in the rainy season from May to October. Tragically, pollution levels of the Pan Long River system and Dianchi Lake have become dangerously high as the expansion of the city sewer system has not kept pace with the rapid growth of the urban areas. Additionally, heavy industrialisation along the riverfront has added to the high incidence of pollution. To confront this threat to the region’s health and vitality, Turenscape architects under the direction of Professor Kongjian Yu, undertook an unprecedented research project in 2008-9 to develop an all-encompassing project to rejuvenate the Pan Long River (Fig. 1).
Population | 566,974 Co-ordinates | 25°04’N 102°41”E Elevation | 1,892 m (6,207’) Precipitation | 1011 mm (39.8”) Temperature | Average High: 21 C (69 F) Average Low: 10 C (50 F) Humidity | 69.6%%
122 Kunming Ecological Infrastructure and Greenways | Kunming | China | Fig. 1 above | Fig. 2 opposite
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