China Copies The World, Village By Village

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.

The Chinese Hallstatt features a church spire, a town square ringed by pastel-colored buildings, and angel statues. And Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.

Chengdu, capital of the southwestern Sichuan Province, opened British Town in 2005, which was modeled after Dorchester, England.

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.

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.

Thames Town features a 66-meter-tall church that bears a striking resemblance to a cathedral in Bristol.

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.

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.