Residents of Jiading District embrace greenery

Eleven beautiful balconies and 12 most beautiful neighborhoods have been chosen in the 7th citizen greenery festival of Jiading District.

"Tropical plants are difficult to cultivate in Shanghai, so we should invest more efforts and time," said Cheng Yu, winner of the Beautiful Balcony Design and Layout Competition in Nanxiang Town, earlier this month.

On her balcony of about 18 square meters, more than two-thirds of the area was surrounded by green. Nearly 100 different varieties of tropical and subtropical plants form a micro "tropical rain forest."

Cheng noted that she spent more than two years taking care of the balcony.

At first, she just bought a few pots of plants to decorate it. Unexpectedly, later, she was involved deeper and deeper.

She not only bought a temperature and humidity meter, but also a spotlight and humidifier to ensure that the illumination of the balcony is between 5,000 and 10,000 luminances, the humidity is 70 to 90 percent and the temperature is above 20 degrees Celsius all year round.

"The greening environment is very beautiful, so I am willing to invest more strength," she said.

The Jiading greenery and sanitation bureau hopes that through such activities, residents will have more green space.

Now many neighborhoods in Jiading have made use of previously abandoned space to make the neighborhood look new.

Xiaonanqiao neighborhood in Jiading Town was rated as one of the "most beautiful neighborhoods."

It is a typical old neighborhood with low greenery coverage. This summer, an abandoned area received a facelift.

It is now decorated with more than 200 pots of flowers and plants, such as hydrangea, flamingo flowers and aloe, and with a bonsai placement rack set up for the convenience of residents.

A new footpath was also paved, which was highly praised by residents.