Cité du Vin expands to Beijing

Cité du Vin, Bordeaux’s wine museum, has announced it will build a new site in Beijing.

The wine museum, spanning over 18,000 square meter, will be situated at the heart in the Zhong Pu Hui Wine Village, Fangshan District of Beijing. The museum buildings have taken inspiration of the landscape of St-Emilion and the complex will be surrounded by vineyards.

In a joint venture with the city’s government, the new site will be located 40km southwest of the capital’s city centre and is scheduled to open in 2021, with an estimated €60 million (¥459.8) construction cost.

It will house an exhibition space, two hotels, vacation cottages, a farm, restaurants, bars and shops, a free-trade zone for Chinese and foreign companies engaged in wine, and also a startup hub for entrepreneurs.

The permanent exhibition will provide an immersive experience, with elements of the Bordeaux attraction and new additions specially designed for China. It will house five areas, which are: What is Wine?, Wine Around the World, History and Civilisation of Wine, Wine and the Senses, and Lifestyle and Wine, which includes the education of wine purchase and tasting.

Weixing Tang, owner of Chateau BoLongBao in Beijing and also the founder of the international wine village, is leading the project. As a receiver of the Chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur in 2015, he showed a long commitment to French culture.

It is hoped that the Beijing wine museum will attract 500,000 visitors in the first year.