The first of the Secret Garden slopes will open this winter, with accommodations available for the following ski season when a 300-room, five-star hotel will open. Lim estimates that up to 600,000 people will be making the trip to the Secret Garden in 2014, a figure that will rise exponentially in the future as more hotels, lodges and facilities open. He estimates travelers, on average, will spend between $150 and $300 per person per day.

"We will emphasize the aprs ski and restaurants and entertainment," he says. "We will have a big weather-proof area like in Genting Highlands, where you are sheltered from the extremes of weather; it is like a subterranean city."

Lim reels off figures over an afternoon cup of coffee in Hong Kong, where he is a regular visitor. His dress is casual - loose rugby shirt, rather than the traditional business suit and tie - and his manner open and friendly.

The distinctly uncorporate dress and demeanor belies the fact that Lim is a savvy entrepreneur who controls VXL Capital, an investment company with a significant war chest. The Secret Garden is its largest and most prestigious project, a venture where the ultimate investment, Lim calculates, will be well more than $1.5 billion (1.03 billion euros).

Other leisure-industry enterprises on the VXL books include the Sichuan Daying Garden, the Guangdong Yunfu City Post Building and the Hubei Xiangfan Hotel as well as the proposed Cambodia-Vietnam Friendship Golf Resort, close to Ho Chi Minh City.

In addition, VXL has close business alliances with various companies that fall under the umbrella of the giant family group Genting Corp. They include KHD, which has undertaken many civil engineering and building projects in Malaysia, such as the Ayer Itam Dam and the Tuanku Yahya Putra Bridge, power stations, port terminals and high rise commercial buildings; Star Cruises; and the IT company Dataprep.

Before he took over as VXL Group executive chairman, Lim was deputy managing director of Genting Berhad and, previously, joint managing director of Asiatic Development Berhad. The resort arm of the family business, headed by the tycoon's brother, K.T. Lim, includes the Genting Highlands Resort, which draws 20 million visitors a year, and other resort and casino projects in the US, the United Kingdom and Singapore.

The Genting Group was founded by the brothers' visionary father, Lim Goh Tong, who saw the potential for a leisure resort in Malaysia long before such ventures were commonplace in Asia.

A former hill station, located less than an hour from the capital city Kuala Lumpur, was turned into a huge leisure complex, with hotels, casinos, a theme park, sports facilities, cable cars and an adjoining golf course.

Judging by Lim Chee Wah's grand ideas, big-picture thinking runs in the veins. The size and scale of the Secret Garden means Lim has to be based in Beijing, so he can easily make the 230-km journey to meet local officials and supervise work on the site.

"Through the mentorship of my late father, we learned how to do things one step at a time and to be sensitive to local requirements. We take that experience and share and develop it in our other resorts around the world," he says.

Lim describes the relationship with local authorities as "extremely professional". He says they are concerned about the displacement of local residents but Lim counters that this will bring an influx of money to the area.

"The project does bring employment via building and business opportunities with this new dimension of tourism."

As an accomplished skier, regular golfer and avid horseback rider, Lim also brings an expert outdoorsman eye to the project.

"I like being engaged with sports to keep a lifestyle of fresh air and exercise."