Dongping Forest Park Cycling Loop: Metasequoia Avenues, Orchid Garden & the Flower-Expo South Garden

Start at Gate 1 (北沿公路 2188 号), the main south gate, where the ticket office, visitor centre, bike hire and the 森林公园 bus stop all sit together. Admission is ticketed, with three separate price points to keep apart: about ¥50 for the adult online presale, ¥60 low season and ¥70 high season at the gate on current listings, plus kids and senior tiers — confirm the day's rate at the window. Hire a bike here (reported roughly ¥10–20 per hour, or the ¥60 ticket-plus-one-hour bundle), leave luggage at the visitor centre, and test the brakes before setting off. The forest begins immediately: dawn-redwood (水杉) and pond-cypress (落羽杉) corridors run straight off the gate plaza, their trunks arrow-straight and their aisles long enough that the far end dissolves into green. The 2021 Flower Expo connection is visible from the first bend, with themed gardens keeping the expo's horticulture alive beyond the temporary pavilions.

Caution: Ticket tiers differ between online presale and the gate — do not assume the presale price is the walk-up price.

Head east on the loop's southern road and the history arrives quickly: the retired J-6 fighter (歼六战机) parks beside the path as a photo stop, and the sent-down-youth memorial walls (知青墙) and the 'Youth Without Regret' monument (青春无悔) record who planted this forest. The land was reclaimed from 1959 as Dongping Forestry Farm, and the trees went in by the hands of the urban youth sent to Chongming's state farms — the island's reclamation story written in timber rather than concrete. Eight memorial walls stand near Gate 1, and the names and years read like a registry of the young men and women who spent their youth here, many of them teenagers when they arrived. The J-6, a retired Shenyang-built fighter of a type that guarded Chinese skies for decades, is the same generation's photo stop — museum piece and playground prop in one, and a quiet corner that deserves a minute off the saddle.

Photo suggestion: The J-6 reads best with the metasequoia avenue behind it; the memorial walls suit flat morning light.

The loop turns north-east to Yongcui Lake (咏翠湖), the park's central water: swan boats, willows and open lawn around the shore, with the orchid garden's greenhouse section on the south bank. The 兰园 collection is reported at about 31,000 m², and official materials link it to Marshal Zhu De's orchids — a heritage hook that makes the greenhouse worth the stop even if orchids are not normally your thing; treat the marshal story as part of the park's telling rather than a settled fact. The ride itself is a gentle 180-degree sweep around the lake's east side, past the 观景台 lookout, on sealed paths that never leave the shade for long. In late afternoon the water picks up the green of the canopy and the lawn crowds thin out, which is the best window for a quiet lap, a lake-side snack, and the swan boats' last run of the day.

Photo suggestion: The lake's south bank, with the greenhouse reflected, is the classic angle in the late afternoon.

Past the lake, the wisteria tunnel (紫藤长廊) runs through the forest — reported at about a kilometre, and the spring headline when the racemes hang in April; even out of bloom the tunnel is a green vault that rides beautifully on a bike, and its dappled light is at its best mid-morning. Just beyond, the deer meadow (鹿乐苑) hosts the roaming-deer sessions reported around 10:45–11:45 and 14:15–15:15, with the animals grazing near the fence line and keeping a calm distance. The peacock-release lawn nearby is reported around 10:30 and 14:00, so a mid-morning ride can catch both shows on one loop. In autumn the meadows turn pink with muhly grass — the second-best colour season after the metasequoia — and the whole stretch is the most photographed kilometre of the park. Keep the pace slow; the show animals are the reason half the park's families ride this direction.

Caution: Do not feed or chase the deer and peacocks — they are semi-wild, and the park's staff are strict about it.

The loop's north-east corner is the leftover of the 2021 China Flower Expo south garden (花博会南园): themed gardens that survived the expo as permanent plantings — the osmanthus garden (桂花园), cherry and plum zones, the narcissus garden, and the open 'dream garden' (梦想花园) with its flower meadows and lawn bowls of colour. Chongming hosted the whole expo in 2021, and this corner preserves what the temporary pavilions cannot: the planting itself, now settled in for the long run, so the garden corner works on any visit whatever the season. In late autumn the red-maple garden (红枫园) turns the corner copper before the metasequoia along the return leg. The lookout (观景台) at the garden's edge lifts you over the canopy for a rare above-the-trees view of the flat island plain — the one place on the loop where the forest stops hiding the horizon.

Photo suggestion: The lookout gives the only elevated view on the loop; the red maples are best mid-morning or late afternoon.

From the garden corner the loop curves back south-west through the recreation zone, where the park's long-standing stock gathers: grass-skiing (滑草) down the bank, forest golf, horse riding, karting and the 160 m zip line, with prices and opening hours to check at the gate rather than trust to memory. The final stretch returns along 森林南路 and 水杉东路 to Gate 1, closing the ~6 km circuit with the gate plaza in sight through the last aisle of trees. If the day has legs left, the 锦湖天地 restaurant (成锦湖天地, 021-59392988) sits near the south gardens for a sit-down meal of island staples, and the BBQ and camping zones rent gear on site — book by 021-59338133, because weekend fire pits and tent pitches go first. Return the bike at the same hire desk, collect any luggage, and you are back on 北沿公路 in time for the evening traffic home, which is still light on the way out.

Caution: The park closes 16:30 with last entry roughly 16:00 — start the loop by 14:00 at the latest so the ride and the exit are not rushed.