BEIJING — More than 140 years ago, the United States government designated Yellowstone as the nation’s first national park — an untouched Western landscape of geysers, grizzly bears and soaring peaks. The national parks program eventually expanded to include more than 450 sites and has become one of the country’s greatest tourist draws.

Now China is trying to do with some of its natural spaces what the United States did during its own industrial boom. On Monday, Chinese officials and the Paulson Institute, a research center based in Chicago, announced a plan to undertake trial national park projects in nine provinces over the next three years.

“National parks are one of the very best ideas America has exported to the world,” Henry M. Paulson Jr., the former United States Treasury secretary and Goldman Sachs chief executive, said in an email. “A Chinese national park system that protects and manages the country’s ecologically rich, beautiful areas can be a source of great national pride and environmental education.”

“The trick in China will be how to let the public share its natural treasures, while at the same time protecting them,” said Mr. Paulson, who founded the Paulson Institute in 2011. “Conservation begins with a love of nature. You need to value something before you want to save it.”