Encircling one of Shenzhen’s four major reservoirs, Xili Lake Greenway is the third segment of the 200-kilometer Kunpeng Trail to be completed under the city’s Mountain-Sea-City corridor initiative. Navigating over 16 kilometers of diverse terrain across upland, densely forested, and urban landscapes, the trail connects Xili Science and Education City, 18 technical universities and research institutes, to the rural villages of Dakan, Makan, and Baimang—communities renowned for lychee farming—transforming a restricted utility zone into a verdant ecological corridor brimming with public life.

Across highly constrained conditions, SWA’s design incorporates low-impact development principles, using regionally-sourced granite and repurposed eucalyptus and lychee wood as core materials, as well as gabion cages filled with stone and pruned branches to slow slope erosion and capture sediment runoff. This approach extends to water management, where channelized reaches of the Lishui and Dakan Rivers have been renaturalized to allow seasonal flooding and public access, punctuated by overlooks, get-downs, and stepstone crossings.

In urban sections of the trail, sidewalks and fences were reconfigured and expanded to carve out room for multimodal trails and, to the south, a linear water pavilion floating along the lake’s edge. In forested segments, SWA coordinated with rural farmers in developing an ecotourism plan centered around lychee products to boost the local economy without overly straining rural infrastructure. In hilly areas, elevated boardwalks lift above grade, weaving carefully around the existing canopy. Altogether, the broader greenway—a feat of cross-jurisdictional mediation, ecological restoration, and cultural revitalization—redefines the reservoir as a shared civic landscape, linking an emerging university hub to the agrarian traditions of Shenzhen Nanshan’s northern villages.