Egret Garden Wetland

Egret Garden Wetland

Egret Garden Wetland is a National AAA-level Tourist Attraction.

The Egret Garden Wetland Rural Complex Project is located along the main axis of the northern ecological corridor of Dongying City, bordered by East Second Road to the east, Huashan Road to the west, Dezhou Road to the north, and Weifang Road to the south. It is within a 15-minute drive from the Dongcheng, Xicheng, and Kenli district governments. In December 2019, it was rated as a National AAA-level Tourist Attraction.

Leveraging its convenient transportation and abundant natural wetland resources, Dongying’s Egret Garden Wetland hosts a gathering of over 4,000 egrets and has a solid foundation in the lotus-root and rice industry. By consolidating land through transfer and integrating agricultural resources such as farmland and forested water bodies, cooperatives have been established along with tourism resource development teams. Saved construction land resulting from land consolidation has been used to attract social capital, forming an “farmer + cooperative + company” business model. The project captures key elements such as scenic attraction zones, farming clusters, agricultural production areas, residential communities, and supporting service zones. Through integrated investment promotion, brand building, and unified management, it effectively protects the surrounding precious wetland resources and ecological environment. This initiative establishes a Dongying-style rural complex that integrates modern agriculture, leisure tourism, and pastoral communities.

The Dongying Egret Garden Wetland Project plans to integrate a variety of resources including forests, water bodies, birds, villages, agriculture, and culture. It features cultivation and planting areas such as specialty orchards, private vegetable plots, and lotus-root rice fields, as well as sectors encompassing cultural innovation, agri-research-industry integration, leisure tourism, wellness vacations, and agricultural experience—realizing the integrated development of the “new six industries.” The project covers an area of 5,500 mu and includes six functional zones: the comprehensive service area, modern agricultural industry demonstration zone, farming-study experience zone, rural resort zone, health-agritourism innovation zone, and pastoral community. According to a planned timeline—Phase I (2018–2019), Phase II (2020–2021), and Phase III (2022–2023)—the blueprint for rural revitalization is gradually unfolding.

Phase I includes the construction of the park entrance gate, a 2,000㎡ comprehensive service center, parking lots, and a children’s playground. It creates “scenario-based tourism” using local elements such as wetlands, egrets, lotus roots, and rapeseed flowers, and makes good use of the water resources from the Liugan Canal to build a rural “Water Cube.” Phase II focuses on ecological organic orchards, vegetable gardens, and organic fertilizer processing, promoting enzyme agriculture to establish a modern eco-agricultural circular industrial chain. Phase III aims to build a comprehensive rural complex integrating modern agriculture, leisure tourism, and pastoral communities. It attracts new residents for entrepreneurship, employment, living, and retirement, fostering a “win-win” situation among the government, collective economic organizations, farmers, and urban consumers.

Currently, four main development projects—egret viewing, wetland water systems, private vegetable plots, and activity spaces—have been preliminarily completed. Meanwhile, nine supporting development projects—including the comprehensive service center, bird-watching platform, and Wetland Homestay—are being expedited.

Upon completion, the project will integrate industrial and residential functions, giving rise to new economic models such as homestay economy and rural tourism economy. It will fully realize the integration of agriculture and tourism, striving to create a distinctive wetland tourist destination where “the wetland lies within the city, and the city lies within the wetland.”

Customer Service Hotline: (0546)8987666 13371503999

Address: 200 meters south of the intersection of East Second Road and Dezhou Road, Dongying City (west side)

Information Source: Shandong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism