Switching to a new track

"Unlike other creative parks that usually open after all the infrastructure is finished, those that start a business here have a unique feeling of growing together with the park," Guo Chen, a designer and the general manager of Lang Yuan Station, says.

Its popularity is demonstrable. According to him, the park receives about 3,000 visitors on weekdays. The number is nearly 6,000 on weekends. During special events like book or food festivals, it can even rise to 12,000 to 15,000.

Guo Zhiming first visited Lang Yuan Station in 2018 for a food festival. "It still looked like an old factory back then," she recalls. "The ground was still being paved. It rained that day and the booths were soon moved from outdoors into the railway station. But I saw a place with high efficiency and great hope."

Guo Zhiming operates OurTimesHere, a multipurpose public space. It has a reading space, an office, and a cafe, but it can transform into a miniature concert hall or a stage for live shows at night.

"It has thus become a place for young people pursuing an exquisite lifestyle and fine arts," she says.