Designers and technicians are putting the final touches to KidzMondo – Beirut's long-awaited educational theme park.

Following two years of planning, the park is slated for a May 2 opening. The 'mini Beirut' concept will offer all the foundations of a real city, including hotel, hospital, fire station, grocery store, eateries, factories, artisan shops, gas station, archaeological sites, salons, an airline carrier and local entertainment.

Whether working on the assembly line at the tiny Pepsi plant or learning how to transplant a liver on a medical dummy at the KidzMondo hospital, children earn play money through professional role-playing and then spend it on entertaining services like a billiard games room or at the local hair salon.

"Kids love to act like adults," said Ali Kazma, chairman and co-founder of KidzMondo, "A big part of the concept is education. They learn how to earn and save and spend money. There are lots of educational outlets."

A further KidzMondo venue is set to be developed within Istanbul's Trump Towers. The smaller venue will offer a slightly altered version in Turkish, rather than Beirut's bilingual English-Arabic model.

A third KidzMondo is also under way in Abu Dhabi, though the much larger theme park will take longer to complete. The expansive location plans to mimic the layout and appropriate professions of Abu Dhabi, such as an oil refinery, Kazma said.