Dongping National Forest Park: The Metasequoia Green Sea of Central Chongming, East China’s Largest Plain Plantation and the Shaded Avenues of the Island’s Interior in Chongming District, Shanghai

十万水杉围绿海，一径斜阳漏碎金。Shíwàn shuǐshān wéi lǜhǎi, yī jìng xiéyáng lòu suìjīn – A hundred thousand metasequoias enclose a green sea; one path lets the slanting sun through in broken gold.

东平国家森林公园 Dōngpíng Guójiā Sēnlín Gōngyuán Dongping National Forest Park is the green heart of 崇明岛 Chóngmíng Dǎo Chongming Island – a planted forest in the island’s flat interior that ranks as the largest plain plantation in East China, grown from saplings on former tideland into a standing sea of metasequoia, pond cypress and camphor (worth confirming the details for the park’s expansion history at the visitor centre, which tells the afforestation story best). Nothing here rises but the trees themselves: the land is pancake-flat, the horizon is the canopy, and the paths run straight as plantation rows under the 水杉 shuǐshān metasequoia avenues – feathery-leaved, rust-red in late autumn, the signature tree of the Yangtze lowlands. The park is engineered recreation rather than wild forest: cycle paths loop the interior, a miniature train toots between the groves, barbecue pits smoke in their designated meadows, and lawns open under the branches for every kind of blanket and kite. The register is shade and lungs – the cool green silence the island trades in and the downtown parks cannot grow. Planted across former tideland within living memory, the forest is also the island’s biography in timber: where the sea stood, rows of saplings now stand taller than the church spires the island never had. Old photographs at the gate show the planting crews at work, and the rows they set are the ones you walk between today.

Two crowds keep the avenues busy: Shanghai families who ride over for a day of bikes, kites and barbecue under the canopy, and campers, runners and school groups who use the park’s lawns and lodges as the island’s outdoor classroom (worth confirming the details for the barbecue pits and campsite bookings, which fill on fine weekends). The park’s holiday calendar – blossom weeks in spring, foliage weeks in late autumn – doubles the visitor flow and rewards an early arrival. The stock answer in kind: a forest large enough that footsteps disappear, a canopy deep enough to make a July noon bearable, and cycle loops flat enough for every age of rider. In late autumn the avenues turn together, and for a few weeks the park’s red-bronze rows are among the most photographed trees in the Shanghai region.

Call it honestly: a young plantation is not ancient woodland – the trunks are mid-sized, the “wilderness” stands in rows, and visitors expecting primeval forest will read the plantation logic at a glance (worth confirming your expectations on a weekday, when the attractions thin and the park is mostly trees and wind). What the map repays is exactly that symmetry: metasequoia avenues standing in disciplined ranks, late autumn setting the rows alight in red-bronze, dawn fog between the trunks composing photographs with no effort at all. Against that: the shade is genuinely delicious in summer, the flat loops make this the island’s easiest outing with children or grandparents, and the green air at the centre is real – stand still between the metasequoias and the island’s roads go silent. Come for the green-air afternoon in summer, the red avenues in late November, and let the little train amuse the children while the forest holds the rest. Combine it with the farm restaurants on the surrounding lanes – the island’s cooking is reason enough for the trip – and let the forest be the morning rather than the whole day, because by mid-afternoon the shade starts to feel like weather of its own.

Practicalities

Nearly everything else on this Chongming list trades a different mood on the same island: choose 东滩候鸟保护区 Dōngtān Hòuniǎo Bǎohùqū Dongtan Migratory Bird Reserve for the east-beach flyway spectacle, 西沙明珠湖 Xīshā Míngzhū Hú Xisha Mingzhu Lake for the western wetland and lake, 堡镇渔港老街 Bǎozhèn Yúgǎng Lǎojiē Baozhen Fishing Port and Old Street for the salt-air market town and 长兴岛郊野公园 Chángxīng Dǎo Jiāoyě Gōngyuán Changxing Island Country Park for the orchard shore – four more doors into the same 崇明区 Chóngmíng Qū Chongming District. Once the day is planned, our Chongming food map fills the eating hours.

Practicalities

Words and Names

flowcloud would say that a Dongping day is bought for the canopy and the cycle loop – shaded morning to barbecue dusk in the October 2026 snapshot, all worth confirming the details – and that the honest move is to take the plantation as it is, rows and all, because the discipline of the planting is the spectacle, keep the metasequoia-avenue walk and the lawn afternoon as the plan, and let the green sea rinse the week away. All checked October 2026.

Getting there: Buses from 城桥 Chéngqiáo Chengqiao town run north to the forest park gates (worth confirming the details for the winter hours, which follow the daylight); the 水杉 shuǐshān metasequoia avenues shade the main walk. All checked October 2026.