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More than nine thousand kilometers east of the Eiffel Tower, the symbolic monument of Paris, there is one of its largest copies: it is 108 meters high and is located in Tianducheng, outside Hangzhou, a city in eastern China completely inspired by the French capital. Commenting on the inauguration of a Chinese town that reproduced down to the smallest detail the characteristics of the Austrian village of Hallstatt, in 2012, Reuters he wrote that “in a country known for its ability to produce fakes ranging from iPhones to Hermès Birkin bags”, copying a city was “probably the most ambitious attempt at imitation” made by China up to that point.
Neighborhoods, cities or shopping centers that imitate London, Florence or Paris in China they are the result of a floor of the Chinese government in 2001 which aimed to solve the problem of overcrowding, trying to attract the wealthier classes towards residential areas inspired by Europe: with not always positive results.
(Raul Ariano/ Redux via Contrasto)
Among these places are i Florence Village, a series of outlets inspired by Italian architecture and urban planning, in particular that of Florence. The first was inaugurated in 2011 near Tientsin, south-east of Beijing: it occupies around 200 thousand square meters and houses over 200 shops, but above all it has many arcades, canals and fountains, a building that recalls the Colosseum and the copy of a Venetian bridge. Walking among restaurants and themed shops, such as those of Gucci, Prada and Fendi, you can notice the symbols of Rome or Venice, but also icons of the Madonna with Jesus.
A street in Florentia Village just outside Tientsin photographed in 2012 (REUTERS/ David Gray)
Since then, Florentia Villages have also sprung up in other parts of China, all built in the Italian style by Rdmthe real estate branch of the large Fingen group: in total they occupy 300 thousand square meters, for a total of 1,200 shops, 21 million visitors every year and an annual turnover of around 2 billion dollars, had written Milan Finance in 2021.
Also south of Shanghai, the Gregotti Associati architecture studio designed what is known as Breeza Pujiang Citya large neighborhood partly inspired by modern Italian architecture: it should have housed 80 thousand inhabitants, but at the moment it seems more a ghost town.
The symbol of Rome at the Florentia Village in Tientsin inside the building inspired by the Colosseum (REUTERS/ David Gray)
About 30 thousand people live in Tianducheng, “Chinese Paris”, and there are buildings that recall those of the typical style of the center of Paris, but also avenues and statues that could be found in Europe. Also near Shanghai are Gaoqiao, or Holland Townwhich in addition to canals and bridges has a traditional Dutch mill, and Thames Towna city inspired by London, with pubs and typical red telephone boxes (Thames is the English name for the Thames).
One of the most discussed imitations was precisely that of Hallstatt, which has around a thousand inhabitants, has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997 and is located on the lake of the same name, about fifty kilometers south-east of Salzburg, in the central part of Austria. The people of Hallstatt had no idea that the real estate company of a major Chinese mining company was building an exact replica of the village along the mouth of a river in Guangdong province, not far from Hong Kong. In the end, however, the mayor said he was “proud” and even visited the “Chinese Hallstatt” during its official inauguration with an Austrian delegation.
Around Beijing, but not only, there are buildings with typical Scandinavian architecture, such as those inspired by the Swedish city of Sigtuna, a copy of the United States Capitol and a bridge decorated with illustrations of Don Chisciotte. In a seaside neighborhood also near Tientsin, an ancient fishing village was razed to the ground to make a kind of Manhattan.
This area, known as Yujiapu Financial District, was supposed to be a large financial center, but “it can be seen more than anything as a monument to the failure of the Chinese growth model”, he had observed a few years ago the New York Times: despite having opened us a Juilliard venue of New York, one of the most prestigious schools of arts, music and entertainment in the world, most of its skyscrapers are deserted, many construction sites have been at a standstill for some time and the hundreds of thousands of inhabitants who should have arrived are also missing.
Tianducheng, China (Laurence Chellali/ Hans Lucas via Contrasto)
Come he said a National Geographic Bianca Bosker, author of a book dedicated to Chinese imitations in contemporary architecture, «while once considered the center of the world, China has now transformed itself into the center that actually contains the world». The program launched in 2001, called “One city, nine centres”, involved the creation of ten new experimental satellite cities inspired by the Western world. More than inhabited and lived-in cities, however, they seem to fascinate more than anything else tourists or curious people looking for some scenic photos, in a rather kitsch context.
In recent times, however, the Chinese government has tried to limit the proliferation of those that always National Geographic defines “Western facsimiles”. In 2016, the Chinese Minister for Civil Affairs, Li Liguo, these moreover, that the country would begin to prevent “the arbitrary use of foreign and bizarre names to indicate roads, bridges, buildings and residential complexes”. He said the measures were aimed at “names that damage national sovereignty and dignity, that violate the core values of socialism and conventional morality.”
People on a bridge in Florentia Village in Tianjin in June 2018 (REUTERS/Jason Lee)
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