826 Joyful Campaign

Shenzhen has been growing from a small city to a metropolis of almost 20 million people in one generation. The city has been covering larger and larger areas removing the edge of the city further and further for many people. Leaving the city became a bigger and bigger undertaking and greenspace a more and more scarce experience. The only part of the city that was saved from getting built over are the mountain ranges separating Shenzhen’s diff erent districts for the simple reason that their slopes were too steep and terracing too costly. Long seen as an obstacle to effi cient city development, in recent years they have been discovered as green lungs for the city. The problem: they had been fragmented by infrastructure lines. Reconnecting them and dedicating them to the Shenzheners as a giant natural landscape reserve became an objective diff erent community groups wanted to achieve. They managed to convince the city government to get on board it what became known as the “826 path” - commemorating the birthday of Shenzhen. Once involved, we felt the genesis of the project should also be its strategy. Rather than making a big plan, we conceived an engaging and joyful campaign as an invitation to interested community groups, hiking and natural preservation clubs and ultimately every Shenzhener to get on board and make it happen. Now step by step obstacles along a 300 km long hiking route across the entire city removed with the help of the city government and all the other groups involved. Next to that we have developed signage, maps and other info and promotion material to advertise the new regional scale park, its infrastructure and its features.