An artist's impression of a pocket park to be built in Baotou. [Photo/Inner Mongolia Morning News] 

Baotou city in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region is going ever greener, with plans to add two so-called pocket parks in 2020, according to the city’s housing and urban-rural development bureau which issued a statement on June 17.

The pocket park is a new concept that has evolved in recent years. They are mainly created by developing unbuilt urban green space, idle land and urban micro-spaces. Officials said that, typically, it is a small-scale public space that has a certain functional flexible use.

For example, in the event of a major natural disaster, they can be used to temporarily accommodate disaster relief tents and be employed as a venue to distribute disaster relief materials.