A project to create an eco-friendly belt around Beijing's Second Ring Road delights local residents and visitors alike, Yang Feiyue reports.

A red wooden gate next to a gas station just east of Andingmen overpass leads to a green world hidden in downtown Beijing.

One minute, you're walking along the bustling Second Ring Road. The next, you step through the gate and find yourself next to a waterway lined with willows.

The branches block out the sounds of the traffic grumbling through the busy Andingmen area, creating a quiet breeze.

Guhehuayu has indeed become a place to retreat from the hyperactive pulse of city life in the heart of the metropolis.

"We've planted many trees and turned the areas into gardens that people can enjoy," says Xu Sha, deputy director of Dongcheng district's gardening and greening bureau.

A great variety of flowers have been planted to ensure blooms throughout most of the year.

Guhehuayu presents spectacular scenes in spring, with such flora as blossoming Chinese crabapples, lilacs and flowering plums near the city's ancient moat, Xu says.

The spring blooms usually last from mid-March to May. In the summer, crape myrtle flourishes, and other trees cast shade to offer respite from the heat, she says.

"We've also planted ginkgos to appreciate when the leaves change color in the fall," Xu adds.

Guhehuayu is part of 13 sites that feature different landscaping elements along a green belt encircling Beijing's Second Ring Road.

The whole belt runs 87 kilometers and covers Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chaoyang and Fengtai districts.

Guhehuayu belongs to the Dongcheng district section, which runs over 16 kilometers and will eventually cover nearly 40 hectares.

In 2012, the Beijing municipal government proposed offering more green sites featuring water for local residents and travelers to enjoy leisure.

The city decided to start creating the area near the moat as water quality had been continuously improving.

The green-belt project kicked off in 2014, and Guhehuayu opened to the public in 2015.

The area used to be a green buffer protecting the waterway and was earlier sealed with an iron fence to keep out visitors, Xu says.

"Weeds ran wild. Things were chaotic. And the willows had pests," she recalls.

After the proposal, local gardening and greening bureaus worked with water management authorities.

A total of 320 million yuan ($47.6 million) has been invested in the Dongcheng section of the green belt so far.

The authority has built sightseeing platforms on the steep slope along the moat to allow visitors to savor the scenery.

Pavilions have been constructed to provide resting spots for visitors.

Pedestrian lanes connect the green belt's areas.

Travelers can easily reach Ditan and Longtanhu parks, as well as a green area south of the city's central axis.

The belt also incorporates elements of Dongcheng district's history, Xu says.

Walls feature sculptures of motifs from traditional Beijing culture, such as children's games, tea ceremonies and Chinese martial chess.

"We'd like Beijingers to reminisce while visiting," Xu says.

Functional art depicting pipelines offers shade and resting areas at the green belt's section that's near China's first tap-water museum. Ancient-style silos and agricultural implements, such as tools for weighing rice, have been added to the Haiyuncang section, which used to hold grain reserves.

Two large forest parks are being built near the green belt.

The 16,000-square-meter Ande urban forest park and the 19,000-square-meter Yandun Park are scheduled to be completed by the end of August, Dongcheng's gardening and greening bureau says.

Yuan Zhiping has frequented Guhehuayu to walk and use exercise equipment over the years.

"I come here every morning after getting up," he says.

He returns in afternoons and evenings if he has time.

Yuan has lived in the neighborhood for roughly six decades.

"The environment is good with the water and plants," he says.

The area was mostly mud and dirt slopes before the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Yuan recalls.

"It was dirty and messy," he says.

He only walked by the site occasionally then. He'd often walk several hundred meters to avoid the area on his way to Ditan Park.

Today, Yuan enjoys strolling through the flowers along the moat.

And he says he looks forward to the new forest parks that will soon open along the green belt.