Houtan Park occupies a strip of land on the Pudong side of the Huangpu, on the site of the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and it is one of the few pieces of Expo infrastructure that has become genuinely useful public space. It was designed as an engineered landscape: a sequence of terraced wetlands, ponds and planted channels that takes water from the river, filters it through soil, gravel and plants, and returns it clean enough to be used in the park. The terraces are both a working treatment system and the organising form of the whole design.
The design
The park is laid out along the river as a series of linear terraces with paths between them, planted with reeds, rushes, water lilies and rice, and crossed by timber walkways and viewing platforms. The industrial past is deliberately retained: the concrete edge of the old wharf, the remains of a steel factory structure, and the retaining walls, all reused rather than swept away. The result reads as a river park, but the way it manages water and flood risk is the point, and there is interpretative signage explaining the process. It is one of the best-known contemporary landscape architecture projects in China.
What to do there
The park is a place for walking rather than sightseeing. A loop along the river and back through the terraces takes about an hour at a slow pace, and the riverbank path continues northwards towards the Expo axis and the former China pavilion. Cyclists use the riverside route, and there are benches, lawns and quiet corners where the only sound is water moving through the channels. On a weekday it is close to empty, which in central Shanghai is remarkable.
Practical notes
Houtan Park is in Pudong, south of the Expo centre and reachable by metro plus a ten-minute walk, and it is free and open daily from early morning until evening. There are few facilities inside - no restaurants, limited toilets - so bring water. Because the site is a wetland it has mosquitoes in summer, and the paths can be slippery after rain. Combine it with the Expo riverside walk to the north, or with the West Bund museums on the other bank by taking the ferry, which is a cheap and enjoyable crossing in its own right.
