Theoretical Framework of Park Vitality Area and Implementation Pathways for Realizing the Recreational Vitality Area of Urban Parks

The concept of "Park Vitality Area" signifies a new phase of urban park development in China and represents a new practical paradigm promoting parks as "landscape catalyst."With a review of the relevant theoretical context and international background, this article proposes dual-dimensional connotations for Park Vitality Area from both a broad sense (sustainable perspective) and a narrow sense (recreational perspective).In response to current practical demands in China, this article focuses on the narrow sense using Beijing as an example to demonstrate its spatial characteristics and three-tiered implementation pathways: enhancing internal vitality, linking internal and external vitality, and cultivating virtual vitality communities of parks.Functionally, the Park Vitality Area promotes innovative transformation of parks from single-type land use into spatial catalyst-driven sustainable development in surrounding areas.Spatially, the fragmented, pointbased configuration of parks is reconceptualized as a composite "point-line-plane" system.The conceptualization of Park Vitality Area can propel research and practice of urban parks into a new stage of systematic development.The future research can encompass a series of issues in the umbrella of Park Vitality Area, including its internal structural characteristics, the spatial extent