At noon, Norbu Park beside Lhasa Jiangsu Experimental Kindergarten is enveloped in lush greenery, with white and pink cosmos flowers in full bloom. After dropping off her child, the resident Nini detours into this pocket park and sits down under the trees. Sunlight filters through branches, flickering across the yarn in her hands.

“This place used to be messy. Now there are flowers and trees. It’s so nice to sit and rest here,” she says without pausing her handwork. On a nearby bench, several sisters(Ajia) chat pleasantly together.

In recent years, Lhasa has revitalized scattered urban idle lots in light of local conditions to build a series of compact and exquisite pocket parks. These green spaces are introduced into neighborhoods, blending urban scenery with everyday life and steadily enhancing residents’sense of gain and well-being.

The old town of Lhasa is densely populated, leaving little room for large parks. “There are no nearby spots to rest and stroll”has long been a common concernamong local residents.

To shore up weaknesses in urban ecological and leisure infrastructure and continuously improve living environments, since the start of the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Lhasa has carried out urban road greening upgrades and old residential community renovation projects. By revitalizing fragmented idle land and building pocket parks suited to local conditions, the city has developed a 15-minute green service circle. Once-neglected urban corners have been transformed into public spaces for nearby residents to relax, take post-meal walks and let children play.

With continuous planning and expansion, Lhasa now boasts more than 70 pocket parks. Ranging from 400 square meters to 10,000 square meters, most are located around old residential compounds and schools. Catering to residents’daily travel and leisure needs, they bring greenery within easy reach for more people.。

These long-awaited “small gardens at the doorstep”have opened one after another. Yet turning the vision of these delicate public spaces on the plateau into reality requires overcoming numerous hurdles.

Lhasa sits at high altitude, with strong sunshine and frequent sandstorms. Local soil contains a high proportion of sand and stone with low fertility, making it unsuitable for direct seedling planting.

Constrained by the plateau climate, the annual window for greening construction is very short. Construction teams race against time for planting, arranging saplings scientifically and watering them carefully according to their growth habits to maximize sapling survival rates on the plateau.

Seedling survival is only the foundation. After construction, landscapes are refined to enrich visitors’experience. Following the principle of “one park, one feature”, each of Lhasa’s pocket parks presents a distinctive and recognizable landscape.

These hard-won green spaces are safeguarded by long-term management mechanisms. Every pocket park now has dedicated caretakers. Information boards display the contact numbers of persons in charge. Problems such as loose benches or broken street lamps can be promptly fixed with a single phone call.

Professional maintenance teams alone are far from sufficient. Pocket parks are ecological spaces shared by all. A pleasant and livable environment requires both regular professional upkeep and collective care from all citizens. Going forward, Lhasa will continue expanding its pocket park network. It will also explore mixed-use models integrating green land and parking space to ease urban land shortages. These tiny parks dotted across city corners will bring more people-centered warmth to the ancient plateau city in Xizang.

Reporter: Pei Cong, Tang Yanping

Translator: Ni Weijing

First Review: Liu Fang, Pan Lu

Second Review: Drakpa Wangchen

Third Review: Hu Rongguo