How China launched £1billion ‘Paris dupe’ with Eiffel Tower & French architecture… & why it became a ‘ghost town’

CHINA built it's own rip off "Paris of the East" - complete with a knock-off Eiffel Tower and French architecture.

Tianducheng even boasts Parisian walkways, cafes, parks and signage.

 

(China built a rip off Paris called Tianducheng - boasting its own Eiffel Tower and Parisian architecture.Credit: Reuters)

 

(The luxury real estate development opened in 2007 following a massive £1 billion construction project.Credit: Reuters)

 

(The real Eiffel Tower in Paris, France.Credit: Getty)

 

But for years the gaudy mimic was all but a ghost town, with just 2,000 residents calling it their maison.

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The luxury real estate development opened in 2007 following a massive £1 billion construction project. Its copy-cat Eiffel Tower is 729 feet shorter than the French original, standing just 107 metres tall.

While an imitation of the Champs-Élysées avenue was named Xiangxie Road before being switched back to the French name.

Developers even gave Tianducheng it's own Palace of Versailles gardens with geometric planting and fountains.

And with streets upon streets of Parisian-style housing, you'd be forgiven if you confused the clone with the French capital.

But despite all of this, the mock City of Lovers failed to get anyone to fall head over heels for it.

This was partly due to its hard-to-reach location in rural Zhejiang province.

Incredibly, between 2007 and 2013, only around 2,000 people lived in a town built for 10,000. But as the Haussmann-style homes remained vacant the eerie town attracted throngs of tourists.

These included newlyweds looking for a picture-perfect backdrop to their wedding pictures.

 

(China has dozens of 'fake' landmarks including a dupe of London's Tower Bridge in Suzhou, in the eastern Jiangsu province.Credit: AFP or licensors)

 

(Eerie Thames Town, in the Songjiang, an area of Shanghai.Credit: Wikipedia)

 

(Visitors to Beijing's World Park walk across a replica of the Sydney Harbour Bridge situated next a replica of the Sydney Opera House.Credit: Alamy)

 

(A replica of the Arc de Triomphe in Taizhou city, east China.Credit: Alamy)

 

Ref: How China launched £1billion ‘Paris dupe’ with Eiffel Tower & French architecture… & why it became a ‘ghost town’ (thesun)

Photo Credit-Reuters, Getty, AFP, Wikipedia, Alamy