Shipyard gains new lease of life as skate park
Children race with each others on Sunday at the newly unveiled Dock 1 Skate Park along the Huangpu River.
Shanghai's once thriving shipbuilding industry, dating back to the late Qing Dynasty (1644-1911,) has many abandoned yards along the Huangpu River.
With the city government determined to open the "best riverside resources" to its citizens, these industrial heritages have been redeveloped into parks, art stages, museums or sports venues.
As one of the latest projects, the city's first riverside skate park was opened on Saturday night at one of the preserved docks of the Jiangnan Shipyard, opened in 1865.
The newly unveiled Dock 1 Skate Park covers about 10,000 square meters on Longhua Road E. It features a more than 3,000 square meters of professional skating field, the biggest and most professional in China.
It also includes sections for skidding, balance car, bicycle motocross and rock climbing, which are open to the public free, along with a hockey field.
Yuanwang-1, which was retired in 2010 after accomplishing about 60 aerospace missions, is being exhibited beside the park. It is illuminated at night as a historic exhibit.
The park is part of the efforts to create a 15-minute sports life circle in downtown Shanghai, said Shen Shanzhou, director of Huangpu District. Additional sports venues for exercises and training will be opened along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, he added.
A skate park has been create in one of the preserved docks of the Jiangnan Shipyard.
"The park is expected to refurbish the century-old industrial heritage and become a stylish sports landmark in the city," Shen said.
The shipyard was initially built in the late Qing Dynasty by order of Li Hongzhang (1823-1901), a Chinese politician, general and diplomat. It is known as the pioneer of China's modern industrial development.
In its heyday, it hosted 13 factories for machines, ships, guns, gunpowder and steel and covered 43,000 square meters. China's first batch of machine tools, cannons and motor vessels were produced at the site. The country's first frigates and 10,000-ton hydraulic presses were also developed there.
The shipyard was relocated to Changxing Island ahead of World Expo 2010. The former welding workshop, covering 7,000 square meters, was redeveloped as the CSSC Pavilion and was preserved after the expo.
Another preserved dock of the shipyard beside the skate park will become the Shanghai Submarine Museum to feature a retired submarine.
Elsewhere in the city, the MIFA 1862, an artsy commercial space, was transformed from an over 150-year-old shipyard in Lujiazui in the Pudong New Area.
Another old shipyard in Yangpu has been turned into the Fabrication Plaza, offering jogging and walking paths to the public.
Children race at the Dock 1 Skate Park.
A hockey field in the former dock of the shipyard.
