Chinese and Foreign Youths Explore Ecological Charm of Int’l Wetland City in Chongqing

Liangping, a landlocked city in Chongqing Municipality without seas or large rivers, has become the only "International Wetland City" in southwestern China. How did it achieve this status? On December 5th, as part of the "Perception of Chongqing - Listen to Chongqing" visit event, participants ventured into Liangping to explore the ecological charm of this "International Wetland City."

The Path to Becoming an International Wetland City

When one arrives in Liangping District, Chongqing, many would choose to visit the Shuanggui Lake National Wetland Park. In this park covering nearly 300 hectares, numerous small wetlands attract over 200 species of wildlife, including teal, Mandarin ducks, and colorful pheasants, providing the illusion that Liangping resembles a "Jiangnan water town" with its abundant natural resources of mountains, waters, and lush greenery.

However, the truth is that Liangping lacks major rivers and abundant water resources. Xu Qiuhua, a member of the Party Committee and Deputy Director of the Forestry Bureau of Liangping District explained that Liangping is located at a higher elevation compared to surrounding counties, making it a typical hilly and water-scarce area. Its per capita water resources are only 73% of the city's per capita water resources and 61% of the national average. As a result, every previous Party Committee and government in Liangping has prioritized "water management."

To manage water effectively, one must first conserve it. Liangping's secret lies in creating "small-scale wetlands." As a renowned expert in wetland research in China, Yuan Xingzhong explained that while many people associate wetlands with large rivers, lakes, and seas, small-scale wetlands such as small streams, ponds, paddy fields, and urban miniature water features, whether natural or man-made. However small in size, they are widely distributed and play crucial roles in water retention, climate regulation, biodiversity conservation, and improving living environments, closely related to people's production and daily lives.

Liangping's journey in water management began with Shuanggui Lake, and Yuan Xingzhong was one of the pioneers. He stated, "In the management of Shuanggui Lake, we introduced elements of small-scale wetlands such as ponds, wetland ditches, rainwater wetlands, and terraced fields, transforming Shuanggui Lake from a poorly water-quality artificial reservoir into a National Wetland Park with stable water quality reaching Class III and rich biodiversity."

Strolling in the wetland park, with its rippling blue waters and the occasional green-headed ducks swimming by, one could easily be charmed by the lush trees and water grass. Haishan from Jordan, constantly bending down to read the plant labels, was filled with curiosity. He said, "I come from a country full of deserts, so I love greenery. This place is so beautiful; it makes me feel completely relaxed. Living here must be very happy."

It is reported that, with Shuanggui Lake as the core of the city's wetland network, Liangping has also implemented river-lake connectivity projects, bringing water into the city and residential areas. It has established a series of urban wetland parks, including Wozi Creek, Chiniu Creek, and Bajiao Lotus Pond, forming a contiguous urban wetland system covering over 30 square kilometers.

Currently, Liangping has nearly 20,000 hectares of wetland resources, with a wetland coverage rate of almost 11%. In 2022, Liangping was awarded the "International Wetland City" certification, becoming the only "International Wetland City" in southwestern China.

Completing the "Second Half" of Being an International Wetland City

Entering the bird AI monitoring big data platform at Shuanggui Lake Wetland Park, Haishan from Jordan noticed that through intelligent cameras, the number, species, and distribution of birds such as teal, colorful storks, and night herons in the park were clear at a glance.

Staff explained that 623 plant species and 283 animal species have "settled" in Shuanggui Lake. Among them, starting in 2018, the critically endangered and nationally protected species, the teal, migrates here yearly. In 2019, the gray goose, absent from Chongqing for 39 years, arrived for wintering. In 2021, the world's smallest duck species, the cotton pygmy-goose, first appeared at Shuanggui Lake, and the white-browed duck, unseen in Chongqing for eight years, "visited." In 2023, the "China Red List of Endangered Animals" briefly declared the rainbow stork extinct in China, but now, it has been spotted in Liangping.

Xu Qiuhua explained that behind the attraction of these birds to Shuanggui Lake is Liangping District's continuous efforts to improve ecological quality through the "small-scale wetlands + environmental improvement" approach. After several years of exploration and practice, Liangping has developed an integrated development model of "small-scale wetlands + environmental improvement, ecological industry, and nature education," leading to the development of four major wetland industries: economic crop cultivation, aquaculture, wetland health, and wetland tourism. The wetland economy has become an important industry in Liangping.

At Liangping Shuanggui Rural Vegetarian Experience Center, Zhang Suheng from Jordan and Rena from Pakistan tasted the unique "Liangping flavor," a dish named "Elegant Lady" made from water chestnuts. "Good mountains and good waters produce good things," said Wang Yali, Deputy General Manager of Chongqing Mingyue Mountain Tourism Service Co., Ltd. Liangping originally did not produce water chestnuts, but in recent years, migratory birds brought them to Shuanggui Lake. Now, water chestnuts have become an important aquatic plant at Shuanggui Lake, covering an area of over 500 acres. The scenery of "distinctive water chestnuts" described in the Book of Songs has become a reality in Shuanggui Lake, giving birth to the unique Liangping vegetarian dish "Elegant Lady."

Zhang Suheng was interested in Liangping's vegetarian cuisine. He said that healthy vegetarian food is widely accepted abroad and that he has tried it before. However, this was the first time he had tasted such delicate vegetarian cuisine that restored the original health and flavor of vegetarian food.

In Yuan Xingzhong's view, Liangping has capitalized on its ecological foundation and pioneered a wetland ecological protection and restoration model with the distinctive feature of "small-scale wetlands +." This "Liangping experience" provides a replicable and expandable model for promoting wetland protection and rational utilization in inland cities worldwide.

"In the future, we will continue to deepen the path of realizing wetland ecological value and bring more ecological, economic, and social value to Liangping, benefiting the people," Xu Qiuhua said. Liangping District will implement the "Ten-Hundred-Thousand" Small-scale Wetland Demonstration Project—constructing ten small-scale wetland characteristic towns, 100 rural small-scale wetland leisure parks, and 1000 forest small-scale wetlands, nurturing a batch of wetland cultural creation bases, strengthening the wetland economy, achieving the "high aesthetics" of ecological environment and the "high-quality" development of the economy, and completing the "second half" of being an "International Wetland City."