The 17th CPC National Congress clearly stated the grand goal of “achieving ecological progress” for the first time while the 18th CPC National Congress strengthened the requirements for ecological progress construction and proposed that making ecological progress is a long-term plan closely related with the people’s well-being and related to the nation’s future. Making ecological progress is placed at a high position in the country’s overall layout and it is closely related with the scientific outlook on development. In July 2013, the State Council executive meeting was held to determine the six key tasks of strengthening urban infrastructure construction, one of which is to speed up the construction of the national domestic “Greenway” for walk and riding bikes. In December 2013, the Central Committee held the  Conference on Urbanization, putting forward higher requirements for urban ecological construction.
　　On January 5, Liu Xiaohua, the Chief Engineer of City Planning Bureau, claimed that Yichang City was listed among the “57 leading demonstration areas of ecological progress construction”, becoming a key area of national construction of ecological progress in 2014. The construction of “Greenway” will be an important measure to build ecological security network of the city center of Yichang and optimize the ecological environment.
　　Constructing “Greenway” to serve livable Yichang City
　　Liu Xiaohua said, the Overall Planning of Yichang City(2011-2030)proposed the construction goal of building Yichang into a “livable, enterprise-adaptable, tourism suitable” city, which means the improvement of living environment, travel services and work environment in terms of city construction. As the new concept of advocating environmental-friendly ways to travel, the construction of “Greenway” is an important measure to promote the people’s livelihood and an effective guarantee to enhance the city’s livability, enterprise-adaptability and tourism suitability level.
　　The “Greenway” concept comes from American and European countries, and has been successfully applied to city construction practices in Paris, London and other world-famous cities. Under the low-carbon, green living philosophy, the “Greenway” construction has become an international movement and a new trend of urban construction all over the world. Since 2010, Guangdong Province has been learning from foreign experience and built the first greenway network in China, and then set off the distinctive national urban “Greenway” construction. In addition to the Pearl River Delta region, Chengdu, Haikou, Jiaxing, Wenzhou, Wuxi, Nanjing, Jiangyin, Wuhan, Mianyang, Quanzhou and other cities also conducted “Greenway” planning and construction. Under this circumstance, it follows the trend of ecological progress construction for Yichang to conduct “Greenway” construction.
　　Yichang City, with sound ecological environment, remarkable natural landscape features of “river, mountain and city”, long history and rich landscape resources, has the innate and basic conditions for the construction of the greenways. Currently, there has been sporadic “Greenway” construction within the central city area, though the construction standards need to be integrated and unified. In brief, Yichang City has solid economic foundation for “Greenway” construction.
　　The construction of “Greenway” in Yichang will help strengthen ecological construction and enrich the level types of green land; it is beneficial to providing green transportation and promoting low-carbon life philosophy; it can increase recreation space for urban and rural residents, and raise the city’s livability. Besides,  it will help strengthen tourism resource development and improve the city’s tourism suitability.
　　The planning study covers 13 groups in the central city of Yichang, including approximately 2,840,111square kilometers. On the basis of the overall study of the 13 groups, the planning mainly focuses on the “Greenway” system planning of about 240 square kilometers of urban construction land of six groups, including Xiling, Wujiagang, Dianjun, Xiao Ting, Xiaoxita, baiyang. The planning period of this plan is from 2014 to 2030.
　　The objective is, relying on the natural landscape features of “mountain, water and city” of the central city of Yichang and ecological resources background, Yichang government will tally with the urban space layout of “ belt-shaped and multiple-group along the Yangtze River”, connect natural and cultural resources, make full use of the “mountain and river” ecological advantages, explore historical and cultural context, and build greenway network systems which integrate urban and rural areas, link mountains and rivers, low carbon and energy saving and easy to connect with each other. Yichang government will also advocate environmental-friendly travel, enhance the life quality of urban and rural residents, promote environmental protection and drive the development of the tourism industry, building Yichang into a “livable, enterprise-adaptable, tourism suitable” city.
　　Building a Graceful Green Open Space
　　According to Liu Xiaohua, the greenway was a kind of linear green open space. The connotation and requirements of the construction of greenways were as following three aspects: first, the greenways were usually built along natural and artificial corridors such as riversides, valleys, mountain ridges and scenic byways; second, the landscape recreation routes opened to pedestrians, cyclists and those who took outdoor activities on their non-motor vehicles should be built inside the greenways; third, the main parks, nature reserves, scenic spots, historical sites as well as urban and rural residential areas should be connected by greenways.   
　　The main functions of the greenway were as follows: it was a protection system of eco-space, a display system of history and culture, an activity system of healthy life, a support system of tourism network and also a connected system of overall urban-rural development. Therefore, the greenway performed four basic functions in terms of ecology, society, economy and culture.
　　This planning classified the greenways in central urban area of Yichang into four types including urban-life style, waterfront-leisure style, forest-recreation style and urban-ecology style. Referring to the grading standards of greenway carried out in some other cities and combining with the construction conditions of greenway in Yichang, the planning classified the greenway in Yichang into three levels including city-level greenway, group-level greenway and community-level greenway. City-level greenway in central urban area, which connected the main city landscapes with the functional nodes as well as the outside greenway, played an important role in improving the urban microclimate environment and providing recreational spaces for residents; Group-level greenways in central urban area mainly connected the city landscapes and the functional nodes in urban construction group together as well as linked up with the urban greenway mainline, so as to enrich the living and recreational environment of residents; Community-level greenways in central urban area, combining with the city layout such as community parks and street greenbelts, linked residential community and surrounding landscape environment together organically, in order to serve nearby residents.
　　Through the construction of greenways in central urban area of Yichang, all kinds of tourism resources of landscape scenery will be integrated and interconnected recreational corridors will be formed in order to enrich the connotation of urban linear recreation space; the contact of slow spaces between urban and rural areas will be enhanced and the development of the rural tourism will be promoted so as to improve the coordinative development of rural and urban areas; the ecological security pattern will be maintained and the harmonious development of urban ecological protection and urban construction will be achieved; the slow spaces in urban area will be managed well and the network of green slow channels will be improved in order to improve the living conditions.
　　Integrating City With Nature
　　As the urban structure of central urban area of Yichang was featured by “along the Yangtze River, belt-shaped and multiple-group”, the landscape pattern of Yichang could be summarized as “one river, two green centers, three greenbelts and four ecological corridors”. One river refers to the Yangtze River; two green centers refers to the back mountain at Xiling and the back mountain at Xiaoting; three greenbelts included the greenbelt from the back mountain at Xiling to Moji Mountain, the greenbelt from Longpan Lake to Guanyin Mountain and the greenbelt from Shanxichong to Aijiadian; four ecological corridors refers to four waterfront ecological corridors including Huangbai River, Bailin River, Qiaobian River and Manao River.
　　Liu Xiaohua said that this planning pointed out the layout principle of the greenway network which integrates the city into nature and allows people to enjoy the beauty of the nature. Specifically, the principle included the contents as follows: the waterfront lines should be taken advantage of to construct landscape corridors and the multiple groups in city should be connected together to serve people’s recreation life. Based on comprehensively consideration of the urban spatial structure, the landscape ecological pattern and the distribution of main landscape resources of Yichang City, this greenway planning put forward a strategy that the greenways should be built along rivers and around mountains, meanwhile, the greenways should connect different cities and different landscapes. Combining with the urban green space system, the ecological infrastructure layout and the transport system structure, the planning of constructing the greenway network in central urban area presented the unique urban landscape and landscape pattern of Yichang by making good use of the ecological landscape resources such as the water system in urban area and the natural mountains, in order to form the structure of “one city, two greenbelts, connection of three green centers, four green pulses and multiple green corridors”.
　　The total length of greenway at urban center area has been programmed to be 883.43 km, and the density of the greenway network 0.31 km / km². The total length of city-level greenway will be 451.5 km, including 11 special lines, that is, city-level greenway line 01to city-level greenway line 11. The total length of group-level greenway will be 431.9 km, which will be at a higher density at Xiling, Wujiagang, Dianjun, and Xiaoxita.
　　Among them, the city-level greenway line 01 - riverside recreational greenway, the total length of which have been planned to be 131.6 km; line 02 - livable greenway at the riverfront of Huangbai River, with the total length of 16.0 km; line 03 - ecology recreational greenway at the north urban area of Yangtze River, with the total length of 64.6 km; line 04 – recreational landscape greenway at Shahe River – the back mountain at Xiling, with the total length of 21.9 km; line 05 - recreational greenway around the back mountain at Xiling, with the total length 18.7 km; line 06 - urban style greenway at the south urban area of Yangtze River, with the total length of 45.4 km; line 07 - urban green culture River greenway around Juanqiao River, with the total length of 21.6 km; line 08 –recreational landscape greenway at Wenfo Mountain – Qingjiang River, with the total length of 20.2 km; line 09 - landscape ecological experience greenway around Bailin River, with the total length of 34.6 km; line 10 - landscape recreational greenway on the back mountain at Xiaoting – Qingjiang River, with the total length of 33.2 km; line 11- country eco-tourism greenway around Manao River, with the total length of 31.0 km.
　　Constructing Urban Greenways According to Circumstances
　　According to Liu Xiaohua’s introduction, the arrangement of greenway and important leisure, recreational space to meet the need of urban public space and enjoyment of the different views of the residents would be taken into consideration in this program. This program would rely on the existing urban roads and greening on both sides, by measurements like adjusting the road section, combining road greening to Pide greenway space, and do not affect the operation of the existing transportation system.
　　The breadth of urban life type greenway control zone would be generally no less than 20 meters. When the condition is not available in special section, greenway control zone should not be less than 8 meters. Urban life greenway should be cordial and pleasant, easy maintained and managed. The approach of using grass instead of trees should be completely eradicated. Trees and evergreen shrubs which are suitable for the growth on urban roads should be the main plants. Evergreen, deciduous and coleus plants should be combined together to emphasize the amount of green and ecological benefits.
　　In the construction of leisure greenway at riverfront, the blue line planning of river water system should be taken into consideration. Consequently, the landscape on both sides of the river should be taken advantage of, relying on the linear space ecotype channel such as waterways to demonstrate characteristic views of local landscapes. The breadth of urban riverfront greenway leisure control zone would be generally no less than 50 meters. Suburban and remote countryside greenway control area would be generally no less than 100 meters.
　　Forest recreational greenway should be combined with local characteristic channel, traffic paths and natural terrain, so that users can enjoy better natural landscape and be convenient to reach the relevant sites. The breadth of forest recreational greenway control zone would be generally not less than 200 meters. The greening of forest recreation type greenway should be close to the natural style configuration and the single plant species, the uniform of plants line spacing and seedling standard should be avoided to form a stable ecological plant community.
　　Urban ecological greenway would be constructed by the large urban ecological parks, green spaces and ecological corridor, which would provide urban residents places near the green and places for sports in the natural environment. The breadth of urban ecological greenway control zone would be generally no less than 100 meters. The “near nature” configuration would be adopted in the construction of urban ecological greenway to form a rich and well-arranged visual effect, reflect the basic characteristics of urban bioPersity, and maintain biological species Persity. In the meantime, the urban ecological space would be a natural migration corridor of plants and animals, to facilitate birds, amphibians and reptiles going through riversides, wetlands, forests, and to provide the residents a good living environment which would be close to nature and open space.