How man eventually found his paradise

Bird park to zoo

In the early 1990s, the father-inlaw of Domb's then secretary had invited him to visit the vast piece of land, ruins of the Cistercian Cambron Abbey that traced its history to 800 years ago.

Domb, who worked in Luxembourg at the time, says that when he went to this beautiful place he almost cried.

"This is where I want to spend my life," he told himself.

After some brainstorming, the idea of building a bird park came up, one inspired by what is said to be the world's largest Weltvogelpark Walsrode, about 530 kilometers from Brussels, in Lower Saxony, northern Germany.

His father-in-law, also a businessman, supported the idea in the beginning, but when the project started to take shape he backed out.

Domb thus had to borrow money from former clients, his two brothers and father as well as a bank to build what would come to be known as Parc Paradiso.

However, after the park opened in 1994, it had become a financial nightmare. Domb said that with his inexperience he had made many mistakes, but felt he had no alternative but to push on with his venture.

By 2000, the park was turning a profit, and Domb's ambitions were growing. The park needed more than birds, he believed, and other creatures and cultural gardens would help turn it into something exceptional.

Domb, who says he has been to more than 60 countries, including China 25 times, said he wanted to have the world's best and present it to visitors in a beautiful setting.

"The more I worked, the more I knew myself because you become what you are," he said.

To Domb, finding animals from all over the world presented little difficulty－one exception being giant pandas－compared with the task of building infrastructure and paying for it. Great zoos need good infrastructure, including buildings and enclosures, as well as good keepers and experts, he said.

"When you are passionate about things, you find the right people."

One person who had a great influence on Domb was his mother, who, he said, had created a beautiful garden at home when he was young.

In 2000, Parc Paradiso was renamed Pairi Daiza, which is Persian for "walled garden". A 7,000-square-meter greenhouse, known as The Oasis, with waterfalls and tropical plants, was built that would be the habitat of several animals such as bear cuscuses and dwarf mongooses.

In the ensuing years, the 10-hectare Kingdom of Ganesha, said to be the largest Indonesian-style garden in Europe, was built. With its temples, lush vegetation and stunning views of elephants and white tigers, it takes visitors on an imaginary trip to Southeast Asia.

An area called Cambron-by-the-Sea has been transformed into an aquarium from a neoclassical castle.

In the southwestern part of the zoo, visitors find themselves in the huge Middle Kingdom, which features: a Chinese garden with a zigzag bridge and lake-center pavilion much like the one in the landmark Yuyuan Garden in Shanghai; a long corridor, or a covered walkway, found in Chinese imperial gardens; a courtyard with a teahouse surrounded by grotesque rocks; and Buddhist temples.