We heard about Shanghai Pujiang Suburbs Park (上海浦江郊野公园) from a friend and decided to spend our afternoon in the park. Spanning an impressive 15.29 square kilometers, this massive green lung is centered around the core aesthetic themes of “Countryside, Art, and Autumn Scenery”. It seamlessly brings together five elements: Forests, Flowers, Farmland, Riverbanks, and Water.
There are five themed sections in this park. Our plan was to visit the crown jewel of the park, the Miracle Garden Area. However, we entered the park from a wrong entrance gate and ended in Vitality Forest Area (森林运动活力区). Since we were here, we decided to explore the area.
A key landmark here is the Shanghai Feiyue Forest Adventure Park (飞越丛林探险乐园). It is a massive tree-top obstacle course that is incredibly popular for families and thrill-seekers alike. It features multiple ziplines, rope bridges, and climbing nets strung across high metasequoia and camphor trees.
After walking one round in the park, we decided to navigate our way to the entrance gate to Miracle Garden Area (奇迹花园区). We read that while the majority of Pujiang Suburbs Park is completely free to enter, the Miracle Garden is a dedicated, ticketed zone that hosts iconic seasonal exhibitions. However, we actually just walked in without having to purchase any ticket.
Miracle Garden is a spectacular 43-hectare (roughly 700-acre) floral sanctuary. Hailed as Shanghai’s "Floral Disneyland," this officially designated National 4A-level tourist attraction blends classical European gardening styles with vast, interactive multi-sensory installations.
The park features its own original fantasy IP lore built around "Qiqi" the Miracle Rabbit, the most prominent and massive, cartoonish pink rabbit which sits directly at the edge of Mirror Lake Marina (镜湖码头). It serves as a playful landmark welcoming family to the water-recreation area.
There were many other installations throughout the park but we noticed something not quite right. We did not see many flowers around the park, which was a stark difference from what we saw in some of the photos on the internet.
The Miracle Garden is famous for partnering with global and local intellectual properties to host giant, highly immersive exhibitions. We were expecting to see "The Little Prince" immersive art exhibition so we continued to explore the rest of the park.
Soon, we entered a zone called The Miracle Flower Carpet (奇迹花毯). And at one end, we saw the Flower Fairy Castle (花精灵城堡), which is a 34 meters tall fairytale structure that serves as the visual centerpiece of the entire garden. But sadly, there was no flower! And it seems like the Little Prince art exhibition had already been taken down. Now it all made sense why we did not have to pay for tickets to enter this park zone. They were probably in the midst of seasonal rotation. We also read that due to the recent Typhoon "White Dolphin" (台风“白海豚”) that hits Shanghai, the storm's violent wind and heavy rain had severely damaged the sensitive, exposed summer floral displays. As such, park horticulturists had to clear out the ruined vegetation and systematically strip the beds down to secure the underlying soil and infrastructure.
Nevertheless, we continue to explore what's remaining in the park. The castle is heavily inspired by the organic, whimsical, and colorful mosaic architecture of Antoni Gaudí. We could climb up to the third floor via a grand, symmetrical "Sky Bridge" to reach a panoramic observation deck. Spreading out directly beneath the castle was a sprawling, 20,000-square-meter field and we could imagine how beautiful it would be if there were a sea of flowers.
As a consolation, we did manage to see a few structures left over from The Little Prince exhibition. Located in the other end of Miracle Garden Area, the Flora Wedding Chapel (芙洛拉教堂) is a structural art piece that is heavily photographed for romantic portraits.
Though the gigantic Little Prince statue had been removed, we found a smaller "him" inside the chapel. :-)
Below was the main entrance gate to the Miracle Garden which we missed earlier.
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