Three Pudong parks, each with a different personality, will open to the public next year, officials said yesterday.

Sport will be the main focus at Gaodong Park in Gaodong Town, while a wetland park in Caolu Town will be a haven for water plants and river life, according to Shao Huadi, director of the Pudong Greenbelt Construction and Management Department. The third park, Huaxia Park in Chuansha Town, will be home to a variety of wildlife, including deer, Shao said.

Gaodong Park, which will be half as big as Pudong's Century Park, will feature a park for gateball, a popular sport in the area that resembles croquet and requires players to hit a ball through three gates with a wooden mallet.

When completed, the court will be able to host international-level matches.

The park will also have basketball, tennis and exercise facilities, all of which will be free to the public, Shao said.

Flowers and trees will play a prominent role in the park, Shao said.

"If Gaodong Park works as a lung with its large number of plants, the artificial wetland park in Caolu Town will function as a kidney," Shao said. "The water system will help maintain the ecological balance."

The park will make full use of the area's creeks and will feature water plants and release fish to create an ecological environment.

Yang Yong, the project's head, said builders would connect stagnant small creeks together and then introduce Qinjiagang Creek into the water flow. The new waterway will allow visitors to take a boat across the park.

Huaxia Park, the smallest park of the three new parks, plans to raise animals, including deer and monkeys.

Twenty young river deer are currently being raised in the park.

(Source: www.shanghai.gov.cn )