Heilongjiang has started building a national park for Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, according to the provincial forest bureau.

Currently, the project preparatory department of the park is applying for around 60 million yuan ($8.7 million) of special funds from the National Development and Reform Commission. If approved, the program will be launched.

The central government had previously approved the building of a national park for highly-endangered Siberian tigers and Amur leopards. The park is designed to cover 14,600 square kilometers in the northeastern provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin.

The national park will be built to protect the endangered animals, but so far it has not been decided whether it will be a tourist attraction or not.