Construction of a Beijing Eden Project is expected to start at the beginning of next year, with a further five projects in the offing, Sir Tim Smit, creator of the UK Eden Project, told Attractions Management.

The Beijing project is being built with Chinese property developer Vanke and, according to the company’s chairman Wang Shi, it could be the largest botanical garden in the world. Feasibility studies are ongoing and central government approval has been given.

Details of another two projects in China are still under wraps, while proposals for a New Zealand Eden-style project, Ki Uta Ki Tai in Christchurch, were recently revealed. The other two projects will be in Canada and Central Europe.

In an exclusive interview, Smit said that none of the upcoming projects would be carbon copies of the Eden Project in Cornwall, southwest England, which opened in 2003. Each will have its own culturally and geographically relevant perspective, and they won’t necessarily be all about plants. Each campaign will be run in close association with local partners, Smit said.

“We have two ambitions: to create a global chain of major Eden-type projects which share a culture, but also transfer different cultural perspectives of each of the others. And, we want to influence as many people as possible that there is another way to run the planet.”

The environmentalist and entrepreneur, who opened the Lost Gardens of Heligan as a visitor attraction in the 1990s, is certain the Eden brand will be a good match for China.

“The reason we’re going to China is unequivocally because it’s the biggest country in the world, with the biggest environmental problems, and they are about to confront their environmental problems with a force which no other industrial nation could muster,” Smit said. “We want to be part of that journey.”

Kath Hudson contributed to this story

Read the full story and interview with Sir Tim Smit in the next issue of Attractions Management magazine.