A huge soccer park the size of 50 football pitches is coming up near the Shanghai International Circuit in Jiading District.

Shanghai's first soccer park is coming up in the northwest suburb.

The first phase of the Shanghai Citizen’s Sports Park near the Shanghai International Circuit in Jiading District will be completed by March 2019, the Shanghai Construction Group said yesterday.

The park will take up an area of 420,000 square meters and will have 18 standard soccer pitches and 32 half-size pitches. It will also include 25 basketball courts with a greenery cover of over 30 percent.

“The site was originally a piece of abandoned farmland with several creeks and roads,” said Zhu Tieliang, the group's project manager in charge of the park.“The land will be processed and leveled to meet the requirements of professional pitches,” he said.

An artist's rendition of the soccer park, or the first phase of the Shanghai Citizen’s Sports Park in Jiading District.

The creeks and several roads will be retained to separate the venues,Zhu said. About 5,600 square meters of structures will be built inside the park that will serve as offices and toilets.

Plans for the second and later phases of the park are yet to be worked out, but will include other sports sites, Zhu said.

The park will encourage more people to take up sports as an activity,the city government said, and improve their life and health.

After completion, it willbecome one of the major sports centers in the city. The city government said it plans to encourage nearly half of the local residents to take part in sports regularly by 2020.

About 42 percent of residents said they often take part in various sports-related events in 2016, according to Shanghai Sports Bureau.

Work on other sports venues is also on full swing. They include Xujiahui Sports Park, Pudong Soccer Court and Chongming National Sports Training Base, whilea basketball arena, horse-riding park, a sailing training base and cycling center are also in the pipeline.

The Xujiahui Sports Park, covering 359,600 square meters, will include running tracks and spacious green areas when it opens by the end of 2019.

The Xujiahui Park will stay open round the clock and will incorporate the existing stadium, gymnasium and swimming pool, along with the high-rise office building Dongya Mansion. All the four structures are currently undergoing major renovation.