Inside China’s eerie ‘ghost town’ replica of PARIS complete with 300ft fake Effiel Tower & clone of Champs Elysées
A BIZARRE replica of Paris complete with a fake Eiffel Tower lies nearly abandoned in China.
Tianducheng, in Hangzhou, could be easily confused for the French capital at first glance with the architecture oozing Parisian chic.
But void of bustling atmosphere and tourists, it is quickly exposed as a copycat city.
The rusting statues, overgrown weeds on the skirt of the Eiffel Tower and industrial buildings with plumes of smoke in the background ruin the romantic illusion of Paris.
For years, the gaudy mimic was all but a ghost town, with just 2,000 residents calling it their home.
The massive £1billion development opened in 2007 but failed to attract enough people to fill its 10,000 capacity.
Its knock-off Eiffel Tower is only a third of the French original’s height, standing just 300ft tall.
The imitation of Champs-Elysees Avenue is eerily quiet compared to the real one.
Although Haussmann-style houses line the streets of the rip-off “Paris of the East”, inside they remain empty.
Tianducheng was even given its own Palace of Versailles gardens with geometric landscaping and fountains which are now bone dry.
But the reason nobody fell head over heels for the mock City of Lights was partly due to its remote location.
Tianducheng is surrounded by hectares of farmland and is engulfed in thick smog from the nearby industrial cites.
Only tourists and newly married couples in search of a picture-perfect backdrop embarked on an hour-long journey from the province’s capital.
But by 2017, the situation slightly improved and the clone of Paris would house 30,000 residents.
As more people moved in, Beijing pumped in more money into the city, opening a metro station to connect it to Hangzhou.
But despite the efforts to boost the population, the city still gives off an eerie feel.
Jarryd Salem, who previously visited the city, told News.com.au: “The atmosphere has become stranger and more complex.
“Tianducheng is an urban development that has failed spectacularly.”
China has built several “duplitecture” cities in a bid to combat the anticipated population crisis in the country of 1.5 billion.
However, the government policy of constructing housing without any guaranteed occupants backfired as more cities turned into ghost towns.
Rachel Ni, who moved to Tianducheng six years ago, told ABC News: “I think it’s a little strange.
“I live here because it’s cheap. In Hangzhou, this is very, very cheap.”
It is only one of many strange “fake” landmarks constructed by China during its infatuation with “duplitecture”.
Sprawling across 3700 acres on the side of the Cangshan mountain range, the popular resort – dubbed “fake Santorini” – has copied the island’s iconic whitewashed cobblestone alleyways and blue windows.
Another luxury hotel in China, aptly named The Londoner, pays homage to the best of British culture, even mimicking the Changing of the Guards.
Other dupes include a replica of a quaint English town that has everything from a church, pub and even ivy growing up the mock Tudor buildings.