Marine Economic Industry

Xianglu Bay Beach Renovation

Address: Xianglu Bay Shore, Middle Lovers Road, Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai City

Xianglu Bay (Incense Burner Bay) is a half-moon shaped bay, so named because of the fishermen who landed here in the past and went to Incense Burner Cave in Shijing Mountain to worship.
In 2016, Gree Real Estate restored the moon shaped, 1.5 km “Golden Beach” in Xianglu Bay, which comprehensively improved the ecological quality and public service functions of the coastal waters. The project has been awarded "2016 Guangdong Livable Environment Sample Award" and “2017 China Habitat Environment Sample Award”. It provides a scientific model for urban ecological protection.

2 Years
2 Years

Nearly 2 years of early stage scientific demonstration

1.5 Km
1.5 Km

Total Length 1.5 km

200,000 Visitors
200,000 Visitors

Average monthly reception of citizens and tourists

50% Green Coverage
50% Green Coverage

Green area coverage on the beach is nearly 50%

Xianglu Bay in the 1990s

The area around Xianglu Bay originally had a natural beach. In the 1990s, due to the construction Lovers Road, the beach gradually degraded and even disappeared.
The original recreational space of the coastal city had been shrinking, affecting the beaches, water quality and ecology along the coastline to different extents, and has cut off the connection between the city and the sea, between man and nature to a certain extent.
How to fix Lovers Road’s historical problem of having a coastline but no beach? It was very urgent and necessary to restore the natural environment of the destroyed beach and expand the public recreational space in the city.

Turning Point

A Discovery During A Ride

In September 2014, Lu Junsi was riding past Xianglu Bay. He found a small piece of exposed sandy beach above the waters near the breakwater, leading him to associate the nearly one million cubic meters of sand from the foundation pit excavation for the Zhuhai Port of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge that needed to be shipped away and processed. Suddenly, he had a bold idea: Since Xianglu Bay can accumulate sand, it proves that there are conditions to form a beach. Can the sand from the Zhuhai port be used to restore an "artificial beach" here?
With strong support from the Zhuhai Municipal Government, Gree Real Estate took the initiative to undertake the Xianglu Bay Beach Renovation Project.
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Preparation

2 Years of Scientific Observation

 

Gree Real Estate, together with the Third Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration, carried out nearly two years of ocean currents and hydrological observations.After scientific argument, it was finally decided to learn from the experience from the artificial beach construction in Barcelona, to maximize the planning and design to integrate with nature and ecology, and strive to build a demonstration project that is truly scientific and effective.

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Start-Up

4 Months of Continuous Construction

 

In July 2015, the Xianglu Bay Beach Renovation Project officially started, using existing geological formations to make the restored coast extend naturally into the sea.
After 4 months of continuous construction, the Xianglu Bay Beach Renovation Project was officially opened to the public on New Year's Day in 2016, becoming another new landmark in Zhuhai.

Innovation

Maximize Resource Allocation

Before the restoration, Xianglu Bay was originally a mixed terrain of sandstone beach + muddy tidal flat. An immense amount of restoration work was required. According to conventional estimates, restoring a beach of comparable size can cost between 60 million and 100 million RMB per kilometer.
Gree Real Estate innovatively used high-quality medium coarse sand excavated from the foundation pit of Zhuhai Highway Port of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge as a source of beach sand, which not only effectively cut-down construction costs and time, but also ensured sand source quality, supply stability and thereby maximized reasonable allocation of resources., and iIt only took slightly more than 20 million RMB to complete the 1.5 km beach filling project, which saved the government a lot of money.
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Surprise

Egrets Return to Nest

 

The beach restoration returned the artificial hard shoreline to an ecological shoreline, which not only improved the natural environment, such as beach and water quality, but also promoted the development of biodiversity. The various marine animals at the beach berm gradually increased to form a complete coastline ecosystem.
The egret is called the "ecological inspector" of nature, and its choice to "settle" in Xianglu Bay is the most convincing evaluation of nature's ecological rejuvenation.

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Upgrade

Landscape Optimization

 

In 2016, in order to optimize the landscape and enhance the resistance to wind and sand, Gree Real Estate launched a beach landscape project and set up a landscape greenbelt with a length of about 1 km and a width of about 15 meters next to the beach along Lovers Road.
Through the landscape optimization, not only were the water-friendly seaside pedestrian system and the slow transportation system constructed, but with nearly 50% green cover and a comprehensive leisure facilities, Xianglu Bay Beach becomes a rare artificial beach with a humanistic environment.
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Verification

Reduce the Impact of Disasters

 

The beach restoration introduced the concept of "sponge city", using the air & water-permeability characteristics of the beach to change it from hard protection to soft protection, effectively improving the city's natural ability to recover.
Many typhoons hit after the beach has been restored. In 2017, after the devastation from the strong typhoons “Tiange” and “Paka”, only Xianglu Bay was still intact along Lovers Road, and there was no problem of loose sand and tides flooding the road. To date, dynamic monitoring of beach sand flow is less than 5%, and this has been scientifically verified.

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Continuation

Old Xiangzhou Nostalgia

 

Old Xiangzhou at Xianglu Bay is an important political, living and commercial center of Zhuhai and one of the landmarks of Zhuhai city.
The restoration of Xianglu Bay Beach has allowed Zhuhai to re-own this unique site, enabling Zhuhai people to continue the “Old Xiangzhou Nostalgia”, which will also a trace-back and honor to the memories of this city. According to statistics, since the launch, the monthly average number of visitors to the beach has reached 200,000.

The Egret Legend

 

 

Photo Album

Xianglu Bay Beach Renovation

In the 1990s, the construction of the Lovers Road made Xianglu Bay gradually become the beginning of people's recognition of Zhuhai. In 2016, Gree Real Estate has repaired a 1.5-kilometer “Golden Beach” here, providing a scientific model for urban ecological protection.

The project has won the “2016 Guangdong Livable Environment Sample Award” and “2017 China habitat environment example prize”.
Unreachable Regret

The area around the Xiangluwan Bay originally had a natural beach, which gradually deteriorated and disappeared with the construction of the Lovers Road. The original activity space of the coastal city has been shrinking, which has cut off the connection between the city and the sea, people and nature to some extent. It is urgent and necessary to solve the problem of “shore without beach” and repair the damaged natural environment.

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Zhou Haisheng, Zhuhai Citizen

When I was five or six years old, Lovers Road was not built yet and there were many beaches along the coastline. I can say that Lovers Road recorded my childhood memories and our destinies are forever linked together. 

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Huang Haoxian, Zhuhai Photography Enthusiast

The egrets chasing the waves, the winds blowing past the green forest, white sails on the blue sea... When I was young, my husband and I often rode bicycles to Xianglu Bay, lying on the soft sand and reading the poems of Bei Dao together.

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Lei Gang, Senior Engineer

Although Gree Real Estate is a real estate company. It has made great achievements in the construction of marine ecological areas in Zhuhai city, such as restoration of the city shoreline, island ecological remediation and other projects which have already achieved remarkable results.

In the course of construction, Gree Real Estate innovatively adopted high-quality medium coarse sand excavated from ZHUHAI-MACAU FRONTIER PORT ARTIFICIAL ISLAND OF HZM as a sand source. This reasonable resource allocation costs 60 million to 100 million yuan per kilometer. The repairs ended with just over 20 million yuan to complete the filling project, which saved the government a lot of money.

After 4 months of construction, the Xianglu Bay Beach Renovation Project was officially opened to the public on New Year's Day 2016. The new pro-sea space has enabled people's lifestyles to change from “living beside the seas” to “integrating with the sea”. Since its opening, the beach has received an average of 200,000 visitors a month.
Ecological Habitat
Rendering Human Romance

The beach restoration restores the artificial hard shoreline to an ecological shoreline, which not only effectively improves the natural environment such as beaches and water quality, but also promotes the development of biodiversity. The variety of marine animals at the beach shoulders gradually increases to form a complete shore. Line ecosystem.When the tide rises and falls, hundreds of seabirds flock in groups, among which are egrets that are extremely demanding on the ecological environment. The egret is called the “ecological inspector” of nature, and its choice to “settle in” in Xianglu Bay is the most convincing evaluation of nature's ecological rejuvenation.

In the optimization of the landscape engineering of the beach, Gree Real Estate built a hydrophilic seaside walking system and a slow-moving system, which greatly enhanced the public service capacity of the beach; nearly 50% of the green area and leisure facilities, leting the Xianglu bay beach become a public space with a humanistic environment, adding a strong literary atmosphere.

As a former public playground, Xianglu Bay carries many urban memories of the old Zhuhai people. The restoration of Xianglu Bay has allowed Zhuhai to re-own this unique site imprint, which will continue the urban complex of the old Zhuhai people. This is also the respect and traceability of urban memories.

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