NANJING, Dec. 20 (Xinhua) -- While most substations impress the public as off-limits sites, a Chinese park has turned such power facilities into places where visitors can take a rest, recharge phones and even watch fish swim.
The Huangsipu Eco Park in the city of Zhangjiagang, eastern China's Jiangsu Province, has erected eight "smart" substations -- power facilities that convert voltage for different uses, with appealing facades such as a pavilion or a giant mailbox.
At one pavilion-shaped substation, the transformers are stored underground using a lifter, while its aboveground part offers a range of free services including music, cooling water spray and measuring blood pressure.
Another subaqueous substation, located in the middle of a pond, offers the sight of carps swimming around the machines.
"We hope to change the public impression that electric substations are enclosed and forbidding," said Zhai Xiaodong, deputy chief engineer of the State Grid's Zhangjiagang branch, which co-designed the substations with several Chinese universities.
The company said it invested more than 30 million yuan (4.3 million U.S. dollars) into the development of the substations and made a number of tech breakthroughs including making substation equipment waterproof.
Zhai said by creating substations that blend well into the natural environment, they hope to make power infrastructures accepted by the public.
"Many people shun power facilities and will resist their construction in their proximity for fear of radiation, but transformers that meet safety standards are actually harmless. Our transformers, for instance, radiate less than an electric razor," Zhai said.
