A new nature park remodeled from an 18-hole golf course officially opened in Kaohsiung today, the city's Public Works Bureau said.
The Kaohsiung Green Park covers 70 hectares repurposed from Kaohsiung Golf Club, more commonly known as Cheng Ching Lake Golf Club, as it is located next to the scenic body of water, the bureau said in a news release yesterday.
Including the surrounding scenic attractions connected to the lake, the park is to be the largest green area in Kaohsiung, the bureau said.
Photo: Lee Hui-chou, Taipei Times
As the first park in Taiwan based on a former golf course, the park has been redesigned with a walking path that spans more than 7.2km connecting grasslands with forests and bodies of water, bureau Director Yang Chin-fu (楊欽富) said.
Other remodeling work done inside the park included redesigning and repurposing the areas around each of the 18 holes on the old golf course.
For example, the bureau said it converted the tee box of the old 18th hole into a viewing platform for visitors to enjoy the scenery.
In addition, the park also preserves a total of 2,658 plants, including orange jessamine flowers and Chinese banyan trees that have been entered into a database so the park administration can better manage the health of the flora.
With the theme of nature conservation and repurposing, several fallen trees from the old golf course have also been transformed into seats scattered around the new park.
The bureau said that it has also completed various projects to make the new park more accessible, for example by repaving roads on the western bank of Cheng Ching Lake (澄清湖), the round-the-lake pathway and also reconnecting a pedestrian walkway at the rear of the lake.
The bureau also recently completed renovation of infrastructure such as a parking lot on Kaohsiung's Bade South Road, adding that a few infrastructure projects are still ongoing and would complete the new public attraction.
As the park is connected to Cheng Ching Lake, the bureau said it would adhere to the same regulations as the renowned Kaohsiung scenic zone, such as forbidding the entrance of pets and the use of fireworks, while banning activities such as camping and climbing.
Cycling, skateboarding and rollerblading are also prohibited in the park for public safety.
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