What Is It Like to Build a Habitat Garden in the Julu Road-Fumin Road-Changle Road area? “Explore Nature” Event Held at Yanfu Garden

On July 5, 2025, the second science-guided tour of the 2025 “Explore Nature: Community Park Season” series was held at Yanfu Garden in Jing’an District. The event was co-organized by the Shanghai Natural History Museum (SNHM, a branch of the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, SSTM) and the Jing’an District Greening Management Center.

As a key public project promoted by the Jing’an District Greening and City Appearance Management Department in 2024, Yanfu Garden has undergone a comprehensive transformation. It has been reborn as an urban “habitat garden” distinguished by habitat creation and biodiversity conservation, integrating ecological restoration, cultural exhibition, science education, and leisure. Nestled within the Nanjing West Road commercial district, it now serves as an “ecological oasis” in the heart of the city.

Xu Shanshan, Associate Researcher at SNHM, and Chen Wei, Designer from the Shanghai Landscape Architecture Design & Research Institute, led participating families and livestream viewers through a guided tour of this newly created urban habitat garden. During the tour, citizens not only learned about the park’s ecological foundation but also discovered how to observe and protect the natural environment around them in everyday life.

The event also featured an “Explore Workshop” session. Under the theme of “Between Tree and Nest: A Practical Project for Bird-Friendly Homes,” science educators from SNHM guided participants in crafting beautiful “birds’ hotels” and hung them on trees in the park. These creations not only provided safe nesting places for birds in the city, but also allowed young participants to take part in building the habitat garden themselves.

In 2025, SNHM and the Jing’an District Greening Management Center jointly launched the “Explore Nature: Community Park Season” series. Through outdoor livestreams, expert-led tours, and creative workshops, the program encourages urban residents to rediscover the beauty of nature in their own communities. It also contributes to advancing Shanghai’s vision of a “People’s City” and helps embed the concept of a “Park City” deeply into the hearts of its citizens.