Urban parks in China remain substantially dependent on governmental financial support but face challenges in economic sustainability. This study utilizes selected design principles from Ostrom’s common-pool resource governance framework as a diagnostic lens, in conjunction with documentary analysis and a case study of four Beijing parks, to examine the evolution of direct economic activities within Chinese urban parks from 1949 to the present. The documentary analysis reveals that successive institutional transformations, from productive self-sufficiency through public-service reorientation to the regulatory curtailment of commercialization, have produced a path-dependent institutional logic that prioritizes risk avoidance over value creation. The case study demonstrates that economic performance is shaped more by institutional constraints than by market potential, with asset leasing prevailing in revenue structures and proactive operational strategies remaining underdeveloped. Emerging policy openings for experiential activities signal a productive reconciliation between public welfare and economic sustainability, one that requires not privatization or Western model transplantation but targeted institutional reforms that introduce essential differentiation and clarity within China’s existing strong-state governance framework.
He et al. (Fri,) studied this question.