While Western shops are full of “made in China” products, China is becoming increasingly obsessed with all things Western — shops, fast food, hotels, art, education, and even architecture.
There is a new trend of “architectural mimicry” unfolding in China in which Chinese cities are built to look like Western-style towns, complete with replicas of the world’s most iconic buildings.
China has replicated Paris thousands of miles across the globe in Tianducheng, a housing estate in the suburbs of Hangzhou in eastern China’s Zhejiang Province; it is known as the “Paris of the East.”
Tianducheng boasts of a 354-ft. high replica of the Eiffel Tower and 12 square miles of Parisian-style architecture, fountains and landscaping. It is designed to accommodate more than 10,000 residents in French neoclassical-style buildings.
The Tianducheng Eiffel Tower is about one-third the size of the original Eiffel Tower, which is 324 meters (1,063-ft.) tall.
