Recently, an environmental improvement project for the urban section of the Grand Canal at the Beijing Municipal Administrative Center (BMC) was officially completed. Stretching from Beiguan Sluice Bridge in the north to Gantang Sluice Bridge in the south, the renewed canal section spans approximately 11.2 kilometers and now features a refreshed landscape that you can check out!

This project focuses on three core elements: the nighttime light environment, urban landscape features, and intelligent environmental management. These elements help to comprehensively enhance the environmental quality and service functions along the banks of the canal.

Efforts have been made to create a series of landmark lighting landscapes to help improve the nighttime light environment.

Historic and cultural landmarks such as the Daguang Building (大光楼) and the Randeng Pagoda (燃灯塔), public activity spaces such as the Grand Canal Cultural Square (运河文化广场), No. 1 Wharf (1号码头), and the Olympic Park (奥体公园), as well as modern landscape features including four commercial buildings in the Canal Business District and cruise ships, have all successfully upgraded their lighting systems.

The project has focused on fine-grained refinements, including upgrades to ground paving and enhancements to public service facilities, thereby improving comfort for daily travel and leisure activities. It has also strengthened slow-mobility infrastructure by linking landscape nodes along the corridor and creating a convenient and well-connected waterfront slow-traffic system.

In addition, the project has empowered environmental management through technology and significantly enhanced the development of intelligent control application scenarios. By integrating and interconnecting independent control units—such as lighting at landscape nodes along the route, lighting of commercial buildings, and other IoT-enabled devices—it has constructed an intelligent control system featuring coordinated linkage among points, lines, and areas.

(Source: Beijing Tongzhou Fabu)