Soil bioengineering is the use of living plant materials to construct structures that perform some engineering and ecological functions and can provide an effective means for slope stabilization and site restoration of riverbanks. The demonstration project was introduced that first applied large scale soil bioengineering to riverbank restoration at the Airport Town, Shanghai. The soil bioengineering techniques such as live staking, live fascines, brush layer with native pioneer species were integrated for riverbank preservation in the project. Ecological parameters including root characteristics and their biomass, species diversity, habitat, shear stress, soil tightness and soil moisture were measured for site characterization and evaluation of a demonstration project. Compared to the control site, the riverbank erosion was reduced significantly, along with an increase in species diversity and habitat, and improvement in aesthetics and inhabited environment after a ten-month project implementation period. The bioengineering techniques and experience from the restoration project at the Airport Town of Shanghai could have been applied to Chinese practices of a variety of slops erosion control and ecological restoration of riverbanks.