Green Heart Forest Park: The Chemical Plant Turned City Forest, the Star-Shaped Loop and the Three Great Halls of Beijing’s Sub-centre in Tongzhou District

旧厂烟囱化碧树，一环星路绕春林。Jiù chǎng yāncōng huà bì shù, yī huán xīnglù rào chūn lín – The old works’ chimneys turn to green trees; a star-shaped ring of road winds the spring woods.

城市绿心森林公园 Chéngshì Lǜxīn Sēnlín Gōngyuán Green Heart Forest Park is not a park built on a spare field — it is, plainly put, an industrial scar replanted into the centrepiece of a capital: nearly eleven square kilometres of woods, meadows and wetlands at the heart of 北京城市副中心 Běijīng Chéngshì Fùzhōngxīn Beijing’s city sub-centre in 通州区 Tōngzhōu Qū, laid out from 2018 and opened at the end of September 2020 on ground where the 东方化工厂 Dōngfāng Huàgōngchǎng Eastern Chemical Plant had stood since 1978 — once the country’s flagship acrylate works, closed in 2012 and stripped of its plant by 2017 before the soil was remediated and the forest went in. The park’s signature is the 星形环路 xīngxíng huánlù star-shaped loop, a five-and-a-half-kilometre ring threading the grounds past 二十四节气林窗 èrshísì jiéqì línchuāng — twenty-four “forest windows” themed on the old solar-term calendar — with the old plant’s core kept as an ecological reserve that people pass around, not through. On the northern edge rise three cultural landmarks: 北京艺术中心 Běijīng Yìshù Zhōngxīn the Beijing Art Center, 北京城市图书馆 Běijīng Chéngshì Túshūguǎn the Beijing City Library, and 北京大运河博物馆 Běijīng Dàyùnhé Bówùguǎn the Grand Canal Museum of Beijing. The old 玉带河东支 Yùdài Hé dōngzhī, east branch of the Jade Belt River, threads the green along the way. What you actually visit is a huge, flat, engineered forest that doubles as the sub-centre’s front lawn.

Call it honestly: a park of scale, not of peaks and monuments — the honest risk is arriving without a plan and cycling the first pretty kilometre forever. Entry is free and gates are many; the star-shaped loop is the way to see it, walked or ridden, with shared bikes and sightseeing options around the gates (worth confirming the details for current rentals, shuttle arrangements and opening hours). Come in the morning for empty paths and working herons, or toward evening when the sub-centre’s joggers take the loop; the图书馆 library and the canal museum make natural half-day anchors with their own hours and reservation rules. Spring’s blossom windows and autumn’s golden larches are the seasons locals brag about. Wear comfortable shoes — the distances inside are city-sized — and treat the park as one loop, one pavilion, one museum per visit rather than a conquest.

The honest star is the loop itself — five-plus kilometres of gently curving road through young forest, every bend opening a new solar-term window — not the three big buildings, however handsome. What gets oversold is the “ecological miracle” framing read as wilderness: this is a designed landscape on remediated ground, its wildness young and managed, and its honesty lies precisely in that — a factory’s footprint turned into a forest is the story, and the park tells it plainly at the old works’ corner (worth confirming the details for which industrial-memory features are marked on your route). What repays the effort is the pairing of green and glass: woods by morning, the vaulted reading halls of the City Library by noon, canal history in the museum by afternoon — a full sub-centre day in one compound. Come for the layering of the place: loop, then river, then the great halls.

The self-aware postscript: I rode the loop behind a man of retirement age who knew every corner, and at the old plant site he slowed and said, “I was a fitter here thirty years — now the trees have my job, and they are better at the quiet”. That is the visit in miniature. 城市绿心森林公园 Chéngshì Lǜxīn Sēnlín Gōngyuán suits whoever treats it as a long green circuit first and a museum day second — loop, forest window, library, home — and exhausts anyone expecting hill-and-lake drama in postcard scale. Everything else on this Tongzhou list lies close by: the canal-bank woods of 大运河森林公园 Dàyùnhé Sēnlín Gōngyuán, the bell-hung 燃灯佛舍利塔 Rándēng Fó Shèlì Tǎ in the old town, the staged streets of 北京环球度假区 Běijīng Huánqiú Dùjiàqū, and the studio lanes of 宋庄艺术区 Sòngzhuāng Yìshùqū — all in the same 通州区 Tōngzhōu Qū that grew a forest where a factory stood.

Practicalities

• Rating: ★★★★☆ — the sub-centre’s green centrepiece and one of Beijing’s best industrial-land transformations; the star-shaped loop and the twenty-four solar-term windows outrank the amusements; pair the woods with the library or the canal museum.
• Tickets: Free entry with generous daily hours; inside, bike rentals, children’s attractions and sightseeing options are priced separately, and the three cultural buildings keep their own free-with-reservation visiting rules (worth confirming the details for current rentals, exhibitions and hours).
• Address: 城市绿心森林公园 Chéngshì Lǜxīn Sēnlín Gōngyuán, bounded by the 东六环 Dōng Liùhuán on the west and the 京塘公路 Jīngtáng gōnglù on the south, 通州区 Tōngzhōu Qū, Beijing.
• Time needed: Half a day for a loop ride and one cultural building; a full day adding the canal museum and the old-plant corner.

Words and Names

城市绿心森林公园 Chéngshì Lǜxīn Sēnlín Gōngyuán Green Heart Forest Park · the sub-centre’s replanted central forest 东方化工厂 Dōngfāng Huàgōngchǎng Eastern Chemical Plant · the works that stood here from 1978 until closure in 2012 星形环路 xīngxíng huánlù star-shaped loop · the five-and-a-half-kilometre ring through the woods 二十四节气林窗 èrshísì jiéqì línchuāng twenty-four solar-term forest windows · the themed clearings along the loop 北京城市图书馆 Běijīng Chéngshì Túshūguǎn Beijing City Library · the vaulted great hall of books on the north edge 北京大运河博物馆 Běijīng Dàyùnhé Bówùguǎn Grand Canal Museum of Beijing · the canal’s own museum beside the park 北京艺术中心 Běijīng Yìshù Zhōngxīn Beijing Art Center · the performance halls of the cultural cluster 玉带河东支 Yùdài Hé dōngzhī east branch of the Jade Belt River · the old waterway threading the grounds

flowcloud would say that 城市绿心森林公园 Chéngshì Lǜxīn Sēnlín Gōngyuán is a factory footprint turned inside out — the 东方化工厂 Dōngfāng Huàgōngchǎng that ran from 1978 to 2012 gave way to nearly eleven square kilometres of forest opened in September 2020, the 星形环路 xīngxíng huánlù star loop past the 二十四节气林窗 èrshísì jiéqì línchuāng windows, and the triple crown of 北京城市图书馆 Běijīng Chéngshì Túshūguǎn, 北京大运河博物馆 Běijīng Dàyùnhé Bówùguǎn and 北京艺术中心 Běijīng Yìshù Zhōngxīn on the north edge — and that the honest move is one loop and one hall per visit, because rentals, shuttles and the buildings’ reservation rules all shift (worth confirming the details), the eco-miracle slogan is the poster half and the old plant corner read slowly is the real half, and the park repays whoever rides it in one calm circuit while losing anyone hunting postcard drama. All checked October 2026.

Getting there: Metro Line 6 across the sub-centre’s north side drops within reach of the northern gates (the 郝家府 Hǎojiāfǔ area), with local buses and the expressway network — the 东六环 Dōng Liùhuán and the 京塘公路 Jīngtáng gōnglù — ringing the rest; self-drive parks at the gate lots along the loop roads (worth confirming the details for current metro-bus connections, gate parking and shuttle services). All checked October 2026.