Parks as soft location factors

Abstract

Soft location factors are of great importance for the attractiveness of cities striving for the establishment of service-oriented local economies. This concerns cultural and educational infrastructures, leisure facilities, and the general quality of living, among others. This chapter investigates how the city of Shenzhen goes about making use of its green spaces in developing a strategic approach toward becoming a “green” and “ecological” role model for Chinese megacities and how different park facilities contribute to the urban development in the rapid urbanization process. This chapter will put a particular emphasis on the question of as to how far the elaborated strategy of the production and upgrading of public open spaces, in particular parks, serves the needs of a prospering local population. It will also indicate how this strategy is designed to help attract well-educated professionals and contributes to attracting visitors, thus generating tourism-related income. For this purpose, the chapter also addresses understanding the definitions of park types according to different functions.