Qinhuangdao Red Ribbon Park

A 500-meter red ribbon winds through Tanghe Park in Qinhuangdao, combining lighting, seating, environmental interpretation and wayfinding, standing out against the natural terrain and vegetation. While preserving as much of the natural river as possible, the project demonstrates how a minimal design can dramatically improve a landscape. The park lies by the Tanghe on the city's eastern edge. Site conditions present opportunities and challenges: an excellent ecological environment with diverse native vegetation and varied habitats; wildness and dereliction at the seaside edge, including a former garbage dump, abandoned shantytown and old irrigation ditches and water towers; potential safety and access problems because shrubs and weeds made the site practically inaccessible; and functional demand from new communities that want to fish, swim and recreate. The red ribbon threads through all these, making the wetland safe, legible and inviting, with integrated LED lighting and interpretive panels. The red ribbon has become an iconic example of minimal intervention in landscape architecture and has won numerous national and international design awards.