Hangzhou’s mock Paris
Tianducheng, a housing development on the outskirts of Hangzhou, has long been a favourite of anyone searching for ‘fake’ European cities in China, but it recently leapt to even wider international fame after being used as the location for Jamie xx’s ‘Gosh’ music video. The development even features a scale replica of the Eiffel Tower and the fountain in Luxembourg Gardens.
Get there Regular high-speed gaotie trains leave Hongqiao for Hangzhou Dong from 4.22am, with the fastest taking just 45 minutes and tickets going from 73RMB one way. Take metro Line 1 to Linping station, then get bus 386 from outside the court. Get off at the Xingqiao Avenue/Ouhuazhou Dajie stop and Tianducheng is right there.
Chuzhou’s fake Sphinx
It really is a small world at the World Cultural Heritage Park in Chuzhou, Anhui, where you can walk from Giza’s Sphinx to Athens’ Parthenon and Paris’ Louvre pyramid – or at least replicas of them. But the people behind the park, which aims to rival Hengdian as a base for film and TV shoots, have not limited themselves to ripping off foreign treasures; Beijing’s Temple of Heaven and a Fujian tulou also feature. And to be fair, Chuzhou isn’t the only place to host a fake Sphinx in China; in June a replica Sphinx and Parthenon were unveiled in the Gansu desert just outside of Lanzhou, while yet another fake Sphinx was dismantled in Shijiazhuang earlier this year following an official complaint from Egypt.
Get there Regular high-speed gaotie trains leave Hongqiao for Chuzhou from just after 6am, taking around 1 hour 40 minutes and costing from 164.50RMB one way. From here, take bus number 4 for around 20 minutes to the park’s entrance. Entrance is 150RMB.
Suzhou’s take on Tower Bridge
Straddling a narrow waterway in northern Suzhou sits London’s Tower Bridge. Well, two replicas of Tower Bridge to be exact. This being China, developers decided to double the number of towers, effectively building two fake Tower Bridges right next to each other and linking them together. Misleadingly named ‘London Bridge’ in Chinese, the structure is part of an area called ‘the little Bund’ and has become a prime selfie spot for city residents and visitors.
Get there Regular high-speed gaotie trains take around half an hour from Shanghai Railway Station to Suzhou and cost from 39.50RMB. Aim for the city’s main railway station and then take the metro to Xutugang (on Line 2). Walk a short way south to Huayun Lu, head right and you’ll see the bridge a couple of blocks ahead.
Dalian’s answer to Venice
Watertowns around Shanghai may regularly be branded as the ‘Venice of the East’ by tourist boards eager to draw parallels with the famous Italian city, but in Liaoning they decided to go a little more literal and build a complete replica. Opened last year, Dalian’s version of Venice features fake Renaissance art and a gondola service. There’s just one small problem: the northeast’s climate means that the waterways freeze over for half the year. Still, if you do visit during the colder months, you’ll also find a fake Arc de Triomphe and a ‘Bruges village’ on the same site.
Get there First, you’ll need to get a flight to Dalian (from around 430RMB return on Ctrip). From here, take the city’s metro to the International Convention Centre and look for signs to Oriental Water Town.
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