World's Largest Botanical Garden to Be Built in NW ChinaA botanical garden, covering a total area of 458 sq km, will be built in the Qinling Mountains area, in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, sources said.The Qinling Mountains Botanical Garden, to locate in the Zhouzhi County, will be almost five times as big as the world's current biggest botanical garden in Australia. It is expected to open to visitors in 2005 following completion of its initial construction. The garden will help protect more than 3,200 varieties of plants in the Qinling Mountains area and plants of warm temperate zone, and import 900 kinds of plants of temperate zone. A greenhouse for more than 2,000-plus varieties of tropical and sub-tropical plants will be constructed inside the garden. The Qinling Mountains, a juncture area between the sub-tropical and warm temperate zones of China and a natural climatic demarcation line between north and south China, is second to none in the country in terms of bio-diversity, distribution of plants, amount of water and climatic conditions, according to experts. The garden will offer visitors a chance to enjoy beautiful landforms such as level land, hills, river valleys and forests, and see more than 150 species of rare animals like golden monkeys and antelopes. When the construction is completed 20 years later, the garden will have more than 30,000 varieties of plants, sources said. |
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