Shenzhen opens new elevated linear park

Shenzhen has a knack for turning awkward or overlooked infrastructure into public pleasures. The city has already transformed surprising sites into parks: the Hemei Park in Luohu District sits atop a sewage treatment plant; the Futian Seaside Ecological Sports Park stands over a water purification facility; and the Bijia Mountain Sports Park covers a Metro depot. These projects respond to a major constraint in Shenzhen’s growth: limited land.

The Bao'an Exhibition High Line Park in Bao'an District. Photos from WeChat official account "深圳微时光"

The Bao’an Exhibition High Line Park is Shenzhen’s latest experiment in urban imagination. The 1.7-kilometer-long, 25-meter-wide elevated greenway that reads part skypark, part people-mover, follows the same logic but elevates it.

What is a high line anyway? In its simplest form, it is a linear garden built on elevated infrastructure such as abandoned railways, viaducts or bridges. The most famous  example is New York City’s High Line — now a celebrated walking park renovated from a once derelict freight railway. It is preceded by the Promenade Plantée (Coulée Verte) in Paris, France, which opened in 1993.

Unlike the high lines in New York and Paris that have been converted from an obsolete line, the Bao’an Exhibition High Line Park is a purpose-built elevated city spine, a green promenade stretching like a ribbon in the air above your head. From below, the park is spectacle. Look up and you’ll see blue sky, drifting clouds, and now and then an airplane slicing across the view so close that you can identify its logo. 

A view of the park from the ground. 

Situated next to the Shenzhen World Exhibition and Convention Center, the elevated park acts like a verdant bridge linking the venue to the exhibition and convention center, nearby office towers, hotels and the Fuhai River Greenway. Its design stacks multiple uses neatly. The upper level is a shaded pedestrian promenade planted with shrubs and trees, while underneath are parking bays and a bus hub.

On a bright day, the high line feels like a living room in the sky, where parents push strollers while toddlers race along a colorful path. Benches along the way invites visitors to rest and unwind. Small kiosks serving coffee and light bites give the park another reason to linger. Order an iced Americano and sit back, and the scene feels like an urban postcard: greenery underfoot, a river of cars below, and planes making their descent and ascent overhead.

The park's proximinity to the Shenzhen airport makes it an ideal place for plane-spotting. 

Plane-spotting is a surprising but powerful draw. The proximity to the Shenzhen airport puts descending and ascending aircraft into close views. It’s common to see drivers pull over to watch a parciluarly low flight.

For families with young children, a small pirate ship-themed playground at the northern end seems designed to let parents unwind for a peaceful afternoon. The playground is equipped with slides, climbing nets and a sandpit where chidlren can easily spend hours happily. The playful art installations dotted along the way turns a casual walk into a small-scale treasure hunt.

An installation in the park. 

The multifunctional Bao’an Exhibition High Line Park is more than a beautiful promenade that offers respite from the ground-level hustle and bustle. It is another example of Shenzhen’s innovative approach to a multifunctional public space that creates new urban capacity where ground-level sapce is scarce. 

Whether you come here for the planes, the coffee, the playground, or just the rare pleasure of walking without being interrupted through treetops, the exhibition high line park delivers a distinct slice of Shenzhen’s inventive approach to making room for city life.

Add: 1 Zhancheng Road, Fuhai Subdistrict, Bao’an District

Metro: Line 12 to Guozhan Station (国展站), Exit D and walk about 400 meters