Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of ...

Bo Ho also has a high share of long staying visitors. This might be due to the large(r)
variation of equipment, offers (shop, restaurant) and attractions. People often sit on benches
and look around.
4.4.4 Activities
Parks in Hanoi are places for relaxation, sports and social contact. That is what everybody
knows about parks and what you can observe consciously. The most visible activity in
Hanoi’s inner-city parks, however, are the “organized training groups” (about 27 %; see
figure 4.21). This is because universities and schools do not have sufficient sports areas; so
they make contracts with the parks (in particular with Thong Nhat and Bach Thao park) to
have some sports lectures and training there.
others
12.0%
communication
(meeting friends/
colleagues) 9.5%
training/
organized group
26.8%
sport/ exercise
19.0%
selling (small
businesses/servi
ces)
2.4%
entertainment
equipment
3.0%
relaxing/ stress
reduction
11.1%
Chess/games
3.3%
walking/passing
through
13.0%
Figure 4.21: Share of activities (based on observations in Thong Nhat park (2010- 2011).
(Own survey, 2010- 2011)
The second biggest user group (19 %) is visitors who also do exercises, alone or with a few
people but not join in a group. Thus, nearly half of all park users are practicing a sporting
activity. This result confirms the finding of a study on human activities in Hanoi 2006, with
48 % sporting activities (HUAN et al. 2009: 182).
The more passive activities are done by a smaller share of people: relaxation (11 %) and
communication (9 %).
Additional activities can be observed, such as selling, providing minor services and
furthermore people working as constructors in the parks. But those activities were not
considered in the analyzing.
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