Liu Yueming, chief engineer of the Guangzhou Institute of Forestry and Landscape Architecture, and his team have devoted themselves to the greening of Guangzhou pedestrian bridges in recent years.

Guangzhou is a metropolis in the country with a large population and increasing traffic pressure. In order to relieve traffic pressure, overpasses and pedestrian bridges have been built continuously.

However, planting greenery on these bridges is not easy due to issues like small planting space, poor air quality, and high temperature.

In the beginning, Liu and his colleagues selected 36 varieties of flowers to try to plant on the pedestrian bridges in Guangzhou. However, they found that many varieties did not perform well, with some not drooping well and others not resistant to pruning and high temperature.

Liu and his team found that only the azalea was the ideal choice after three years of observation. Therefore, azalea has initially selected as the overpass greening variety.

The team collected azalea varieties from Yunnan, Hainan, Fujian, Guangxi, and the Pearl River Delta. There are now 400 varieties, and they bloom from once a year to four seasons.

In order to control the flowering of azaleas, the team tried a variety of techniques, such as water control, nutrient regulation, pruning, and hormone treatments. Through continuous experiments, they mastered the flowering regulation technology for azaleas. 

The team strengthened the refined management of pipes and created an intelligent water supply and fertilizer supply system, as well as an intelligent inspection system for pedestrian bridge greening. The team obtained more than 18 utility model patents.

Now, the greening of Guangzhou pedestrian bridges has become a calling card of the city.

The greening of Guangzhou pedestrian bridges.