Oriental Eden, Qingdao, China

Oriental Eden in Qingdao, is a new awe-inspiring visitor destination inspired by Eden Project Cornwall, and owned and run by Jinmao Holdings. It is now officially open.

The experience

Just like Eden Project Cornwall, and the future Eden Project Morecambe, Oriental Eden is inspired by nature and the local landscape. Sited on coastline at the confluence of a river and the sea, it engages people with the history and future, beauty and wonder, challenges and hope tied to water.

Water is one of Earth's most precious elements and Eden Project has imagined for China an interactive water experience traversing three incredible realms which animate the story of water - its scarcity, abundance, and quality.

Visitors to Oriental Eden will leave the everyday behind as they are transported into hyper-real experiential interactive worlds to re-examine a path to co-existence with nature, emotionally engaging with issues through story, narrative, wonder, joy and human interaction.

At the heart of the site is the Storm Forest, a giant tropical biome where extraordinary living landscapes, immersive experience, performance and play take engagement approaches first realised in Cornwall, to new levels.

The project showcases the regeneration of the site, bringing the land back in touch with its surrounding water. It communicates the importance of water and the ongoing water challenge in a meaningful and fun way and is a positive and optimistic place for environmental and social change, extending the reach of Eden Project's charitable mission to demonstrate and inspire positive action for the planet.

The Storm Forest at Night from the outside

The location

Map of China with Qingdao marked by a pin

Oriental Eden, Qingdao is positioned on Jiaozhou Bay, surrounded by water and defined by rivers and sea. It spans an incredible 200 acres site of reclaimed and environmentally damaged barren land originally used for salt production and then prawn breeding.

Qingdao is a coastal city of nearly nine million people in Shandong Province, halfway between Shanghai and Beijing. The city is backed by mountains and surrounded on three sides by the Yellow Sea.

It is famous for hosting the 2008 Olympic sailing races, for having the largest bathing beach in Asia and for its most famous export, Tsingtao Beer.