Work has started on a new botanical park in central China's Hubei Province to protect rare and endangered plant species in the reservoir area near the Three Gorges Dam.

The Haiyun Botanical Park will cover an area of 6,967 hectares, and will be the largest of its kind in the country.

Reports by scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say that the water level in the area will rise by 175 meters when the massive hydro-power project is completed. Some rare and endangered plants would then be submerged.

Due to its special natural conditions, such as a complicated geological status, land form, soil and climate, the Three Gorges area became a safe haven for plants to avoid the onslaught of glaciers in the Quaternary Ice Age, according to an expert.

Among the 54 species of rare and endangered plants growing in the area, 36 are indigenous, such as the metasequoia.

China is one of the few countries which are the most diversified in terms of plants, while the Three Gorges area is one of the most important nature reserves in the country.

It is imperative to salvage the plants facing extinction during the early phase of the project, according to officials at the Ministry of Forestry.

In addition to protecting the endangered plants, the garden will be a research and breeding center to cultivate rare species to be introduced from foreign countries, according to the officials.

The idea of setting up the botanical garden came from the late Zhu Kezhen, a late renowned scientist, who was then responsible for mapping out a national program on the development of plantations. Yichang was designated as an ideal place for the park because of the its typical ecological environment similar to the dam area of the Three Gorges project.