A Chinese company recently erected a copy of the Austrian village of Hallstatt in the southern province of Guangdong, down to the statues. But it's hardly the first time China has taken a European city as inspiration to build a tourist destination or housing development back home.
China Copies The World, Village By Village
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China's Minmetals spent $940 million to build the Chinese replica of Austria's Hallstatt, a UNESCO heritage site, in the southern city of Huizhou in Guangdong Province.
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The Chinese Hallstatt features a church spire, a town square ringed by pastel-colored buildings, and angel statues. And Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
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Chengdu, capital of the southwestern Sichuan Province, opened British Town in 2005, which was modeled after Dorchester, England.
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Anting New Town, on the outskirts of Shanghai, was designed by the German architectural firm Albert Speer and Partner and boasts a German look. But the development is still a ghost town.
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Thames Town, in a southwestern suburb some 40 kilometers from the two-centuries-old commercial heart of Shanghai, is said to draw its inspiration from Bristol and Birmingham in England.
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Thames Town features a 66-meter-tall church that bears a striking resemblance to a cathedral in Bristol.
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While houses in Thames Town sold quickly after it opened in 2006, most were bought as investments or second homes, and few owners are said to live there.
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A man feeds pigeons beneath the onion dome rooftop of St. Sophia Cathedral, a former Russian Orthodox church in Harbin in northeast China. Harbin has opened a "Russian village" to attract tourists across the nearby border.
