Shanghai is often the butt of jokes for its flat, completely urbanized landscape. Built on land shaped by the shifting sands of the East China Sea, the city’s almost complete lack of higher elevation terrain (not including skyscrapers) is sometimes a talking point. But as of September, Shanghai locals and visitors alike can now experience “mountains” right in the city center.
Nestled in what was once the 2010 Expo Park, now called the Shanghai Expo Culture Park, the Twin Hills (双子山 Shuāngzǐ Shān) are entirely man-made and cover a whopping 300,000 square meters. The main peak stands at 48 meters, with the smaller one at 37 meters. The hills feature over 7,000 trees, and inside their hollow structures are exhibition halls, parking lots, and even an electrical substation. It’s the first time such a large-scale artificial mountain with a hollow structure has been built in China. Locals fondly say they’ve “watched these mountains grow up” over the nine years it took to construct them.
Shanghai residents are buzzing about the new hiking opportunity in the heart of the city. Previously, the only option for hiking in Shanghai was the 98-meter-high Sheshan, located in the suburban Songjiang district. But now, with the Twin Hills much closer and easier to reach, they have become an instant hit. Visitors come from all parts of Shanghai, some traveling from more distant parts of Pudong and even from the western outskirts of the city, almost in Suzhou. Despite Typhoon Bebinca (the strongest storm to reach Shanghai in decades) hitting the city on the third day after opening, the park still attracted around 1,000 visitors — a testament to the excitement around the Twin Hills.
Netizens and visitors have been using their imaginations to maximize their enjoyment of the hills. The small waterfall in the park has been dubbed “China’s Niagara Falls,” and people humorously rephrase the height of the 48-meter peak as “4,800 cm” to make it sound more impressive. Many visitors have made Xiaohongshu posts jokingly claiming that they suffered from altitude sickness while visiting the hills. Some visitors even wear professional hiking gear, sharing photos on social media that, at first glance, make it look like they’re trekking a real snow-covered mountain. For those scrolling quickly, it’s easy to wonder, “Does Shanghai really have mountains now?”
Adding to the fun, the park offers hiking poles for visitors, which has sparked quite a bit of online banter. Although the poles were intended for elderly visitors, who make up a significant portion of family groups, they became so popular that the park began replacing them with broom handles once the original stock ran out because people were not returning the sticks.
However, some controversy surrounds the project, especially due to its price tag of over 2.1 billion RMB (288 million USD). Shanghai taxpayers can’t quite understand why their taxes were used to build two short hills in the city center. Some have even mockingly dubbed them “Big and Small Flat Hills” (大小瘪山), a play on the Shanghai dialect term “瘪三,” which originally referred to vagrants without proper jobs but is now used to describe scrawny, disreputable individuals. Still, the park’s focus on sustainable design and creating a family-friendly environment seems to have won over the city. The Twin Hills may be artificial, but overall they’ve captured the hearts of the city’s residents.
Banner photo via Xiaohongshu.
