Exercise #3: Connecting Past and Present
August 5, 2026 By: Lingling Hu
- Media Item: “Xinhua Headlines: Pocket parks drive urban renewal, eco-improvement efforts in China”
http://www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/2026-07/24/content_118615867.shtml
This article describes how China is building thousands of “pocket parks”—small green spaces typically covering 400 to 10,000 square meters—across cities to enhance urban living conditions, with over 18,000 built between 2021 and 2025 as part of a national urban renewal plan (“Xinhua Headlines: Pocket”, 2026). This directly connects to Unit 3’s exploration of urbanization and the historical relationship between cities and green space. In Steinberg’s account of the 19th-century “organic city,” urban dwellers were intimately connected to nature through animals, gardens, and waste recycling—connections that were severed by Progressive Era reforms ( Steinberg, 2002, pp. 79-81). China’s pocket park movement represents a deliberate effort to reintegrate nature into dense urban environments, repurposing vacant lots and underused spaces to regulate microclimates, provide cooling shade, and give residents accessible public green space. These contemporary urban planners are actively bringing nature back in—a striking reversal that shows how urbanization strategies have evolved to recognize the ecological and social value of urban green space.
- Media Item:”New protected marine reserve, larger than P.E.I., to be established on B.C.’s Central Coast”
In May 2026, CBC News reported on an agreement between six coastal First Nations, Parks Canada, and the B.C. government to establish Mia-yaltwa Ha’lidzogm hoon, a 6,700-square-kilometer national marine conservation reserve on B.C.’s Central Coast ( Birnie, 2026). Historically, North American parks were established on the flawed premise that wilderness must be “untouched” by humans, which led to the forcible removal and exclusion of Indigenous communities from their ancestral homelands. In contrast, this 2026 reserve demonstrates a major shift toward co-governance, recognizing that long-term biodiversity preservation depends on Indigenous stewardship rather than colonial exclusion.
References
Birnie, M. (2026, May 23). New protected marine reserve, larger than P.E.I., to be established on B.C.’s Central Coast. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/mia-yaltwa-halidzogm-hoon-protection-area-central-coast-9.7209294
Steinberg, T. (2002). Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (pp. 79-81). Oxford University Press.
“Xinhua Headlines: Pocket parks drive urban renewal, eco-improvement efforts in China”. (2026, July 24). China.org.cn. http://www.china.org.cn/china/Off_the_Wire/2026-07/24/content_118615867.shtml