“Hey! Look at that giant yellow box!” “There’s Xiao Ning on the roof; he represents child-friendliness!” This impressive new building, located at Gate 2 of Tianyi Square, is the Xiao Ning Energy Flagship Station.

Developed through collaboration between the Ningbo Municipal Government’s Women and Children Work Committee, the Ningbo Women’s Federation, and Haishu District, the Xiao Ning Energy Flagship Station serves as a space service brand for child-friendly city development in Ningbo. It functions as a comprehensive center for children’s content creation, a broadly connected platform for coordinating children’s resources, and a multidimensional space for responding to children’s service needs.

In its first week of trial operation, more than 70 families have visited this 45.6 square meter public space.

The Xiao Ning Energy Flagship Station has been created from repurposed shipping containers, giving it the appearance of a large yellow gift box. Inside, it includes areas for children’s entertainment, a reading corner, a parents’ lounge, a mother-and-baby room, and a message wall. The station emphasizes five key functions: promotional activities, multi-dimensional services, public welfare events, participatory governance, and wish connections, offering tailored services and activities for both children and parents.

According to staff, the Xiao Ning Energy Flagship Station officially opened on June 1 and will provide ongoing information about child-friendly concepts daily. On weekends, the space will transform into a “Friendly Theater” for children, featuring a variety of outdoor activities such as children’s documentaries, music concerts, opportunities for children to serve as store managers for a day, and wish collection initiatives.

The Xiao Ning Energy Flagship Station is the inaugural step in Ningbo’s public space service brand for child-friendly cities. In the future, the Xiao Ning Energy Stations will evolve into three categories: the Xiao Ning Energy Flagship Station, Xiao Ning Energy Theme Stations, and Xiao Ning Energy Stations, expanding to parks, transportation hubs, hospitals, and rural areas. This expansion aims to create a brand network that achieves comprehensive coverage of child-friendly environments and continuously improves the effectiveness of child-friendly services in urban public spaces.

The establishment of the Xiao Ning Energy Station symbolizes Ningbo’s dedicated efforts in advancing the “Child-Friendly City” initiative.

In November 2021, the child-friendly city initiative was launched across Ningbo, with the slogan “I Embrace You in Ningbo” representing a collective aspiration for the future shared by the city and its children. The city is committed to addressing children’s needs and promoting their healthy development, driving the construction of a child-friendly environment throughout the region.

“As viewed from a height of one meter, we can discover the beauty through a child’s eyes and understand their inner needs,” noted a representative from the Women’s Federation. Recently, Ningbo has simultaneously promoted the development of child-friendly communities, neighborhoods, rural areas, and schools as fundamental units. The city has established the province’s first child-friendly commercial district and the first child-friendly subway train, renovated 137 scenic school routes, created 15-minute parent-child reading circles and childcare service areas, and built 395 comprehensive service stations for women and children, as well as 2,854 children’s homes, providing safe, convenient, comfortable, and inclusive urban public spaces for children.

Child-friendliness encompasses not only infrastructure but also service philosophies.

In Beilun District, the Lingxiao Community Children’s Observation Group includes children aged 8 to 17, with one participant from Egypt. Since its inception, the group has convened monthly to offer suggestions for community governance.

In Haishu District’s Gulin Town, the “Little Linya” Child-Friendly Observation Group focuses on the mental health needs of students by implementing the “My Campus, My Creation” tree hole landscape project. This initiative invites children to contribute their ideas for designing emotional tree hole landscapes, which are then crafted by professional designers, allowing children to take ownership of their campus environment.

“The Children’s Observation Group serves as a successful model for exploring children’s needs, decision-making, supervision, and feedback, enhancing their involvement in urban development and promoting social governance. So far, we have established 588 children’s observation groups across various levels, with over 30,000 child participants,” stated a representative from the Women’s Federation. Suggestions from child representatives, including “installing drinking water facilities in parks,” “creating a children’s reading area in libraries,” “developing a sharing island in Shuyue Community Library to facilitate book sharing,” and “establishing a dedicated knowledge line for students,” have all been successfully implemented.

In the nearly three years since the establishment of child-friendly cities, various regions in the city have adapted their approaches and collaborated to develop distinctive child-friendly brands.

As a central urban area, Haishu District offers unaccompanied child services at major transportation hubs, including the airport and train station, and has launched the “Child Guardian Family Alliance” in the Tianyi business district to create a model urban living room that prioritizes convenience and safety for children.

In Zhenhai District, where over 30% of residents in newly developed communities are children, a child-friendly neighborhood center has been established, integrating family, school, and community efforts. This initiative enhances the development of “neighborhood circles, travel circles, educational circles, and leisure circles,” focusing on the “N Alliance” to drive the incubation and evolution of child-friendly services, thereby exploring a work model comprising “one center + four circles + N Alliance.”

Xiangshan County is taking advantage of the Asian Games by utilizing specialized venues and marine resources to introduce multiple ocean-themed educational routes, enabling children to engage in sports while experiencing local fishing culture.

Viewing the world from a height of one meter and hearing children’s voices from that perspective, Ningbo is systematically creating a nurturing environment for children, thoughtfully weaving a beautiful tapestry of child-friendliness.