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New trends in the construction of children's play spaces in municipal parks under child-friendly policies

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2025-01-26

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Editor-in-Chief | Yang Ming

Editor | Liu Kaiye

Come Source | JIGao Dream Factory

The National "14th Five-Year" Plan Outline clearly proposes to comprehensively promote the in-depth integration of child-friendly concepts into urban construction. Municipal parks are important public spaces in cities and the most important space for children's outdoor activities. Promoting the construction of child-friendly spaces in urban parks and green spaces is paramount to the fundamental construction of child-friendly cities.

In the classification of urban construction land, municipal parks usually refer to G1 park green spaces, including comprehensive parks, community parks, and specialized parks. The management entities are mostly urban garden and greening authorities. In recent years, more and more cities have begun to combine municipal park renovations with the construction of child-friendly facilities, introducing a wealth of recreational facilities to address the urgent need for children's outdoor activities. However, during implementation, factors such as management mechanisms, financial support, and public-private partnership models determine the construction model of child-friendly spaces in municipal parks, and there are significant differences in the actual situations of various cities. This article takes some representative municipal park projects as examples to summarize several new trends in the construction and operation of children's play spaces:

Trend 1: Child-friendly renovation of existing park spaces activated by urban renewal

Child-friendly parks with enhanced functions and universal public welfare

In many traditional central areas of first- and second-tier cities, the service facilities of municipal parks are lagging, and various facilities are outdated. With the advancement of urban renewal, these parks are gradually starting to be renovated. These old municipal parks were built in the early and mid-stages of urban construction, usually funded by the government and managed by relevant local authorities. Due to their public welfare attributes and management mechanism restrictions, the status quo of children's play spaces in these parks is often relatively backward, with a significant gap compared to emerging park and green space projects. A sandpit and a simple set of slides usually constitute a children's playground, with simple facilities, single functions, and some are quite old and have safety hazards.

In addition, mechanical amusement machines such as carousels, pirate ships, and small roller coasters are also common children's amusement projects. These facilities are usually invested and operated by enterprises and are the most common market-oriented operation method in parks. However, mechanical facilities can only provide passive sensory stimulation, cannot stimulate children's active participation in physical and sensory integration exercises, and lack influence on children's creative thinking. They can no longer meet the requirements of young families for scientific parenting and high-quality companionship;

Nowadays, under the guidance of relevant policies on child-friendly cities, the renovation of traditional parks is increasingly incorporating novel and multi-functional non-powered recreational facilities. Renovated parks often become more popular destinations for citizens. In these parks that have undergone child-friendly renovations, the specific implementation methods of children's recreational facilities are also diverse.

Pilot Experience 1: Customizing themed and prominent game landmarks to revitalize urban parks

Heping Park is a typical case of child-friendly construction in Shanghai's municipal parks. In the initial stages of renovation and construction, it emphasized the preservation and highlighting of the park's cultural memory. The children's play area is themed "Peace Rabbit," creating a game landmark with rich functions and prominent themes.

The project proposes three design strategies: "learnable games oriented towards age-group care," "comprehensive site safety," and "parent-child companionship and family friendliness," deepening the planning and design concepts of child-friendly parks.

It innovatively introduces a "learnable game product combination" (Playful learning facilities), integrating "edutainment games" into the park landscape in a scientific product combination form, which has high promotion value.

Heping Park Children's Play Area (design, facility production, and installation services provided by JIGao Group)

In addition, natural research and learning functions have been integrated, enriching the connotation of child-friendly spaces. The natural research and learning area has set up spaces such as a nature center and a Classic of Poetry garden, complementing the playground to form a natural, interesting, and edutainment children's play area.

Indoor Nature Center Classic of Poetry Garden

The advantages of the Heping Park model lie in breaking through the single function of physical exercise in traditional playgrounds, highlighting the scientific nature of game facilities, and constructing a richer outdoor experience for children's cognition. It also strengthens the park's cultural characteristics, establishes a unique park IP, combines artistic construction with recreational functions, and forms a cultural landmark of the park.

Pilot Experience 2: Procurement of standardized facilities, controllable costs, and easy replication

In recent years, many municipal parks in Shenzhen, Chongqing, Wenzhou, and other cities have added a large number of children's play areas, generally using standardized recreational facilities such as climbing nets, slides, and sandpits.

The advantages of the standardized facility model lie in its strong replicability and simple and efficient construction and implementation, but there are also problems such as the same appearance in thousands of parks and the inability of game functions to cover the needs of children of all ages.

Trend 2: Shifting from the traditional public service park management model to market-oriented operation

Market-oriented operation of existing park assets

Currently, as government public welfare undertakings, most municipal parks adopt a free and open management model, and the management and operation funds for parks are borne by the government's fiscal budget. However, with the increasingly tight local government finances, this part of the public budget has also changed from insignificant "small money" to an increasingly heavy "burden."

In recent years, some cities in developed regions have gradually realized that relying solely on government funding is difficult to achieve the sustainable and high-quality development of urban parks, and have begun to try market-oriented operation of municipal parks. This involves shifting from government department management and fiscal appropriations to market-oriented operation by state-owned enterprises and actively integrating social capital to establish park operation and management companies.

Pilot Experience: Using parks to support parks, achieving synergy between economic and social benefits

In July 2022, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Garden and Greenery issued the "Beijing Park Supporting Service Project Operation Access Standards (Trial Implementation)". The introduction of this policy provides policy support for further revitalizing the advantageous resources of parks and promoting the refined management and high-quality development of capital parks. To date, Beijing has achieved partial or overall market-oriented operation attempts in many municipal parks, including Olympic Forest Park, Chaoyang Park, and Longtan Zhong Lake Park.

Longtan Zhong Lake Park was upgraded in 2023 using existing green spaces. The renovated park is operated by Oriental Zijin (Beijing) Culture Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Beijing Dongcheng State-owned Capital Operation Co., Ltd., commissioned by the Dongcheng District Government and Dongcheng District Gardening and Greenery Bureau of Beijing. The commission period is three years, and the park's operation is self-financing, with a small amount of financial subsidy from the Dongcheng District government. It is being developed as a benchmark project for the revitalization of urban parks in Beijing.

The park has added a series of high-quality life service formats. Among them, the Natural Paradise, invested and operated by a private enterprise, provides outdoor field services integrating natural leisure and fun children's amusement for families with children aged 3-12.

The outdoor children's expansion playground in Beijing Chaoyang Park introduces the ENS concept, using natural sensory integration education to provide scientific guidance and intervention for children, thereby promoting better development of their brainpower, physical strength, and willpower.

Trend Three: The development model of government or platform company gardening + enterprise operation is becoming increasingly mature.

With the advancement of child-friendly city construction, many cities in China have proposed the task index of constructing district-level children's specialized parks. In some cities, the mode of government-enterprise cooperation is also more flexible and diverse, and the model of joint government-enterprise investment and operation is becoming increasingly mature. In this type of model, the government or platform company acts as an investor, responsible for the initial capital investment in park construction, while also introducing well-known enterprises in the professional field to participate in construction and subsequent operation and management. Through investment and operation, high-quality new formats are introduced into the park, revenue is created, and economic benefits are enhanced.

Pilot Experience One: Some Marketized Municipal Children's Parks—Improving Park Service Quality and Economic Efficiency

Shenzhen is one of the earliest cities in China to propose the construction of a district-municipal children's park system. The "Shenzhen Park City Construction Overall Plan and Three-Year Action Plan (2022-2024)" proposes that each district should build at least one children's specialized park. Shenzhen's first municipal children's park is mainly government-funded, with some projects, such as the power amusement area, independently invested and operated by enterprises. The non-powered playground, science museum, and nature education center in the park are all open free of charge to the public. However, this model requires a high level of government fiscal investment and is only suitable for cities with abundant finances. The moderate commercial operation of the park has created some economic benefits for the park and also provided a guarantee for its sustainable development.

Pilot Experience Two: Operating Children's Playgrounds—Achieving a Win-Win Situation between High-Quality Public Welfare Projects and Investment and Operation Benefits

The Binzhou Caijin Jigaotu Wowow Yellow River Dreamland in Shandong Province features ultra-large non-powered amusement facilities, combined with various fun and educational cognitive games, meeting international high-quality standards, creating the city's largest children's playground, and also a landmark project for Binzhou's child-friendly city. As a cultural and tourism infrastructure project and a high-quality Binzhou construction project, this project is a cooperation between the local platform company and Jiga Group, giving full play to the professional advantages of the enterprise, consolidating project operation and management, and laying the foundation for creating a municipal benchmark and demonstration project. The government department, as the regulatory body, provides sufficient service guarantees for the park's subsequent operation. The Binzhou Caijin Jigaotu Wowow Yellow River Dreamland has created a new win-win model of cooperation between local state-owned enterprises and private enterprises.

Trend Four: Municipal parks in the new towns surrounding super-first-tier cities are undergoing a transformation into scenic areas.

Municipal parks in suburban new towns of large metropolises are built simultaneously with the new towns. Many parks are built and operated by real estate companies. Due to the lack of professional operation teams, the projects have not been updated for a long time, resulting in a decline in product appeal, a single profit model, and deteriorating operations. Many parks have begun to try the path of transformation into scenic areas, pushing resources to the market, selecting products with strong brand power in the parent-child field, introducing social capital, and cooperating with enterprises through leasing + entrusted operation + resource exchange, innovating cooperative operation models.

Pilot Experience: Introducing Joint Enterprise Operation to Achieve a Win-Win Cooperation between Old Parks and Child-Friendly New Formats

Yuehu Jigaotu Wowow Pancoat Playground is located in Yuehu Sculpture Park in Sheshan National Tourism Resort Area, Songjiang District, Shanghai. In 2022, Yuehu Sculpture Park established a cooperative relationship with Jiga Group, introducing the Jigaotu Wowow Playground brand for joint operation to create a weekend family leisure destination. The playground integrates the original IP "Tufei" and the Korean trendy IP PANCOAT, designing themed scenes loved by the whole family, benchmarking European counterparts, and creating a "Disney" in the parent-child playground world.

In the current promotion of child-friendly city construction and refined park operation, governments, park management departments, and construction and operation entities urgently need to understand the models and paths of child-friendly space construction and operation. As a leading enterprise in the industry, Jiga Group has participated in many representative projects in China and has accumulated considerable practical experience in high-end product manufacturing, park operation, construction, and investment. With the gradual deepening of relevant policies and continuous product iteration, more excellent projects will be launched to the market. We look forward to it.

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