KUNMING -- A Chinese property tycoon has secured a deal to develop a sprawling eco-resort in a forest-covered county in Southwest China after he lost a controversial bid to develop a high-end resort in Iceland last year.

Huang Nubo, chairman of Beijing-based Zhongkun Investment Group, said Thursday that he would hire world-class designers to complete the blueprint of the 60-square-kilometer resort in Pu'er city of Yunnan province by the year-end.

The resort, located near a new airport in Lancang county, will include village guestrooms, golf courses, spas, exhibits, recreation facilities and a conference center, according to the agreement signed between Zhongkun and Pu'er municipal government in late March.

It is the latest property project undertaken by Huang's group after the tycoon's plans were rejected last year by the Iceland government to develop a 300-square km resort there with $200 million. Huang cried foul saying the action reflected "the unjust and parochial investment environment facing private Chinese enterprises abroad."

The Pu'er project, however, is estimated to involve a whopping 50 billion yuan ($8 billion), local media reported earlier, but sources say the amount will not solely come from Zhongkun. The company is seeking other investors.

Pu'er is located at a bio-diverse hilly region that borders Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam and is famous for post-fermented Pu'er tea. The resort project site has a dozen villages with a population of 2,000.

"We would renovate the original villages and build new villages among the old," Huang said. "We are not going to overhaul the old and bring a city. We will minimize the environmental damage in the development."

The Nature Conservancy, an environmental group, will draw an "ecological protection red line" that if off-limit to development, said Zhang Xingsheng, a regional director of the group.

Already a tourist destination, Pu'er attracted 5.5 million domestic travelers in 2011, bringing in 3 billion yuan, up 70 percent from a year earlier, according to the vice mayor.