City of Love fails to woo the Chinese
A farmer works in a field with the replica of the Eiffel Tower in the background (Reuters)
A resident stands on the balcony of his Parisian-style apartment. Construction first started in 2007 and although it is near completion and mostly open for business, local media regard Tianducheng as a ghost town (Reuters)
Rows of white Parisian style homes can be seen in Tianducheng. The knock-off of the famous 'city of love' features a replica Eiffel Tower, an Arc de Triomphe and a Bassin de Latone (Reuters)
European-style buildings are covered with Chinese lettering in Tianducheng. The development is supposed to house 100,000 people but so far is only home to 2,000 (Reuters)
People walk past a fountain with black statues of a chariot, horses and other animals in Tianducheng (Reuters)
A lightning bolt streaks across the sky above a replica of the Eiffel Tower in Tianducheng. The replica stands 108metres tall and is just one of the Parisian-inspired landmarks in the Chinese city (Reuters)
Brooms lean against a statue at the Tianducheng development in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. This isn't the only European-inspired town in China: Thames Town near Shanghai is filled with Georgian terraced houses, a Chinese Dorchester in Chengdu is modeled on the Dorset town. German and Italian-style towns are also being built (Reuters)
Tianducheng, a gated community near Hangzhou, capital of coastal Zhejiang province, was built to attract China's wealthy. Paris, French wine and designer labels and handbags are popular status symbols in the Asian country (Reuters)
A replica of the Eiffel Tower can be seen behind a farmer's house in Tianducheng (Reuters)
The 108metre replica of the Eiffel Tower in Tianducheng, Zhejiang Province (Reuters)
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