Qingkou Ecological Park

Qingkou Ecological Park

Qingkou Ecological Park is a national AA-level tourist attraction.

Qingkou Ecological Park — the largest modern, ecological, comprehensive park in Ganyu County.

To optimize the overall urban greening structure and increase the city’s green space, Ganyu County built its first forest park on the east side of National Highway 204, relying on the Qingkou River. After an intensive construction period during the rainy season, the overall project of the ecological park has been successfully completed and opened to the public.

Qingkou Ecological Park adopts a modern gardening style, reflecting the new urban development concept of “people-oriented, cultural, modern, and ecological.” It adheres to the design principle of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, and embodies green and environmentally friendly concepts throughout. The green coverage rate reaches 73.6%. The ecological park has formed a stable plant community dominated by trees such as cedar, ginkgo, privet, metasequoia, and osmanthus, with a rich layering of trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, and aquatic plants that complement, rely on, and interlock with one another, creating varying heights and densities. A total of 1,800 square meters of color-block plants have been newly planted or replenished, and over 200,000 square meters of new green space have been added. The completion of Qingkou Ecological Park not only improves the poor green space, limited activity areas, and lack of exercise venues in the old urban district, but also fills the gap of having no modern, ecological, comprehensive park in the area. Furthermore, it boosts construction in the western part of the county town, accelerates the development of the old city, and complements the Civic Square and Seaside Park in the new urban area. It plays a vital role in creating a greener Ganyu, refreshing the city’s image, enhancing its profile, and improving the living environment in the old urban district.

Qingkou Cultural Ecological Park was originally the largest landfill site in the county town. In 2007, the county Party committee and government, themed around “green, healthy, and leisure,” designed the park by leveraging the natural terrain and shaping landscapes accordingly. The park features eight scenic spots, including “Sea View from Floating Isles,” “Sunset over the Ancient City,” and “Ink Aroma and Mountain Shadows.” Mountains, rocks, lakes, water bodies, woods, grass, and small landscape elements are arranged in a staggered and ever-changing fashion, offering a delightful scene at every step. The park integrates leisure, fitness, sightseeing, and entertainment, fully highlighting Ganyu’s coastal characteristics. It provides residents and visitors with a fresh and pleasant leisure space, meeting people’s longing for greenery and sustainable urban development.

The park covers a planned area of 28 hectares, with a green coverage rate of 73.6%. To date, a total investment of 140 million yuan has been made, constructing a lake surface of 46,000 square meters, building an 8,000-square-meter square, erecting 14 pavilions, corridors, and bridges, paving 8,500 square meters of garden paths, and planting 150,000 square meters of greenery. The second-phase projects, including the Floating Sea Pavilion, amusement park, tea street, and the white marble reliefs at the South Gate and South Square, have been completed. The design plans for six sets of Ganyu cultural reliefs for the third phase have been finalized. The newly built Jade Emperor Pavilion in the park stands 30.45 meters tall, covers an area of approximately 1,100 square meters, and cost over 7 million yuan to construct, making it the largest ancient building in Ganyu County.

The Jade Emperor Pavilion was originally located within the Qian Palace in Qingkou Town. Built during the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, it boasts a glorious history of over 400 years and consists of three courtyards. The first courtyard houses the main hall — the Goddess Hall, which enshrines the statue of the Goddess Mazu. The second courtyard is the Three Officials Hall, featuring statues of the Heavenly, Earthly, and Human Officials. The third courtyard is the sleeping quarters, known as the Jade Emperor Pavilion.

The Jade Emperor Pavilion is not only one of the historically iconic buildings in the Qingkou area, but also one of the memorial sites where the early Ganyu County Party organization carried out revolutionary activities. In the autumn of 1929, Lu Boyu, a Communist Party member from Ducun in Guanyun County, was dispatched by Comrade Li Chaoshi, then Secretary of the CPC Donghai Central County Committee, to Ganyu under the guise of a senior elementary school student at Qingkou Primary School. Lu secretly conducted Party activities while residing in the Jade Emperor Pavilion. He successively recruited 11 Communist Party members and established the early Party organization in Ganyu County — the CPC Ganyu County General Branch. Here, the Party’s dedicated members printed leaflets, wrote slogans, held oath-taking ceremonies for new members, convened work meetings, planned armed uprisings, and carried out revolutionary propaganda. On April 5, 1930, due to a security breach, the Ganyu Party organization suffered severe damage. Lu Boyu and six others were arrested, while the remaining members were forced to flee. In prison, Lu Boyu remained steadfast and unyielding, enduring severe torture without revealing any Party secrets, and ultimately died a tragic death in prison at the young age of 19.

To revive this historic and iconic building in the Qingkou area and erect this red monument — the first general branch of the CPC that the people of Ganyu will forever remember — in 2010, the county Party committee and government rebuilt the grand and majestic Jade Emperor Pavilion in Qingkou Cultural Ecological Park. They invited the renowned calligrapher Wei Tianchi from Jiangsu Province to inscribe the pavilion’s name.