The Dahaihe River is located in the northwest of China’s Loess Plateau. It is the largest tributary of the Yellow River water system flowing through the Hetao Plain. It is the “mother river” of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Additionally, it is located in the East Asia-Australia international migration line, and is an important biological migration corridor and water sponge corridor. The project is focus on west part of Daheihe River with a total length of 12.9 kilometers.
Urban Design & Architecture Design Awards 2026: Entries Open!
Take your work to the next level. Register Now…
Gold 🏆 Winner
Urban Design & Architecture Design Awards 2025
Paradise for Migratory Birds — Ecological Restoration of Daheihe River in Inner Mongolia, China
Public Landscape Architecture (Built)
Firm
Shanghai Landscape Architecture Garden Design & Research Institute Co., Ltd (SLADI)
Architect/Designer
Zhaoxia Zhang, Yan Li
Design Team
Hong Jiang, Mingxi Gao, Yueyue Fan, Wenting Ji, Peng Yu, Chengyu Qian, Hanchuan Liu, Xiaolan Wu, Chong Li, Xiaojun Wang, Xinying He, Xuechao Huang, Baojuan Wang, Yu Shi, Chenghui Zhao, Boyang Xia, Shupeng Lin, Yu Ding, Guibing Bian
Location
Hohhot, Inner Mongolia
Country
China
Photographer/Copyright
©Yan Le
The present situation is characterized by large trees, rich landforms and diverse land use types. However, the disorderly sand mining activities have increasingly eroded ecological resources such as water systems, wetlands and forestlands. It due to serious soil erosion, soil desertification, destruction of biological habitat and lack of cultural and tourism resources.
According to the complex land properties, the design effectively respects the natural landform focusing on four aspects including biodiversity conservation, sponge ecology construction, enhancement of recreational functions, and integration of rural culture and tourism, finally builds a comprehensive value system for the integration of natural ecology, recreation, leisure and cultural tourism for Daheihe River and forms a 490-hectare open reserve along the 12.9-kilometer Daheihe River.
With the improvement of natural habitat as the core and preserving the current topography and vegetation to the maximum extent, a series of measures such as river dredging, water body restoration, vegetation restoration and insect hotel are implemented to achieve biodiversity enhancement and enrichment of waterfront vegetation community. One year after its construction, thousands of national Class II protected animals – shelduck flocks came here to feed and roost. Groups of black storks, mallard ducks, egrets, coot chickens and herons symbiosis here, reflecting remarkable ecological restoration results.
The Daheihe River is an important area for ecological protection in the Yellow River basin, an important river ecological corridor in the city and an important sponge corridor for imported water in the built-up area. The project achieves smooth flow of water by construction of a once-in-a-hundred years flood embankment and dredging the main river. Based on the principle of receiving all the imported water, a series of filtration measures can supplement groundwater, regulate runoff, detain flood and reduce runoff pollutants, achieve the target of 90% annual runoff control rate, and create a river landscape with flood control, ecological and recreational functions. Coming to social benefits part, within the limits of recreational capacity and ecological capacity, low-disturbance recreational activities are placed to form diversified recreational nodes such as under forest camping, RV camp, bird watching platform, etc.. In terms of the integration of rural culture and tourism, based on the status quo of the village and ecological opportunities, with “Zhaojun culture, parent-child holy land, and harmonious countryside” as the core, it is committed to creating a tourism resort in Zhaojun Water town that integrates “parent-child tide play experience, harmonious countryside construction, and Zhaojun culture and art”, promoting the integrated development of agricultural culture and tourism, and realizing the ecological sharing of people, birds and cities.