Improved Dasha River favored by water sports lovers

After water treatment and service facility improvements, Dasha River has flowed back to people’s lives and become a space where people and nature coexist in harmony, as reported by Shenzhen Evening News.

“After practicing rowing, I could go back to work with a positive spirit,” suggested Xu Guo, an entrepreneur working in Futian CBD. Xu used to go to Dongguan for rowing for the simple reason that Dasha River back then was smelt terrible.

Resident Xu Guo practices rowing along Dasha River. Courtesy of Xu

Dasha River starts from Yangtai Mountain, and the 13.7-kilometer-long river flows from Changlingpi Reservoir to Shenzhen Bay.

Dasha River was once polluted as more and more productions were carried out along the river with sewage discharged into the water.

In the early 1990s, Nanshan District launched projects to treat the river. With combined efforts, the river finally had a new look, especially when the Dasha River ecological corridor was completed on Oct.1, 2019.

The ecological corridor includes water activity areas for rowing and dragon boat racing. As the water quality met requirements for rowing, a race was held along the river for the first time on June 3, 2017.

In the same year, Dasha River’s first professional rowing club — Row For More Club — was established and set up a training base for citizens and enterprises to practice rowing.

Chen Shan, founder of the club, hoped that every person could feel the charms of nature via the sports and then take actions to protect and improve the environment.

In addition to the district’s universities’ rowing teams, Nanshan also established Dasha River rowing sport alliance school that has attracted nearly 1,000 students from the district’s primary and high schools. Many enterprises in Nanshan also formed their own rowing teams.

Li Yurong, a citizen living in Xili Subdistrict, said that he has joined over 30 free rowing activities. Nanshan District issues 24 free rowing coupons each week via the WeChat miniprogram “南山文体通,” according to the report.

“Rowing along Dasha River is extremely enjoyable, especially during sunset when the setting sun shines golden on the water with egrets flying on both sides sometimes. This is a visual and spiritual shock. People on riverbank see us as beautiful scenery while we also see them the same way,” said Xia Lirong, a national coach who has been padleboarding for three years.

“There are few urban rivers with good water quality like Dasha River. It is a still water area with straight waterways, which is very suitable for paddleboard beginners,” Xia said, who also advised related government departments to formulate rules and systems to safely allow paddleboarding lovers to practice along the river.