Technically Speaking, Beijing's Parks are Getting an Upgrade

Look out world – by 2022, Beijing’s parks are going smart! Building smart public parks is a core component of the national Smart City pilot program. As one of these pilot cities, Beijing issued the Guide for the Construction of Beijing Smart Parks – laying the groundwork to make all of the city's 1,090 parks high-tech. The objective: automating many elements of park maintenance and increasing the interactivity of parks with local visitors.

Curious what these futuristic green spaces can do? Though it will be a couple of years until the tech is rolled out throughout the city, a few select parks are experimenting right now. Here are a few examples: 

Xihai Wetland Park is among Beijing's model smart parks. Xihai Park uses an integrated high-tech network to manage facility upkeep and routine maintenance. Some examples of its bells and whistles include:

• Hardworking streetlights: Begone simple lights of yesteryear! The street lights in this park have four functions: lighting, monitoring, public broadcasting, and emergency management. See someone rollerblade into a tree? Lost and can't find your way out? Press the nearest handy smart light pole and help is on the way!
• In China, park watches you! In case you ever wondered if you're being watched – the answer is now definitely yes. Video recognition technology records the number of visitors within the park – assisting with crowd control and maintenance.
• High-tech gardening guide: QR codes on lamp posts and signs provide visitors with information on plants throughout the park.
• Robogardeners: The park relies on high-tech equipment to collect environmental, meteorological, and water usage data. Specifically, Xihai's irrigation system uses an intelligent remote automated control system and also tracks plant growth patterns via remote-accessible data.

In Haidian Park, even the grounds want you to exercise and take out the trash.

• Fitness tracking flora and fauna: Facial recognition cameras can also track visitor’s fitness information, automatically informing runners, walkers, and joggers of their performance.
• Pick up the trash, ya litterbug! The park's smart trash cans use AI voice recognition technology and garbage classification standards to tell you when you're sorting items incorrectly and notify staff when trash cans are full.

So, what's next for Beijing's parks? As 2022 approaches, get used to similar standards for all of Beijing's parks. Whether its cool, creepy or somewhere in between, smart parks are in line with broad goals for the city's development – using high-tech solutions and widespread monitoring to accomplish a range of urban planning goals.

READ: Beijing May Soon Rent Out Historical Landmark Buildings

Images: Sohu