Side-By-Side Photos of Paris and Its Chinese Knockoff – Tianducheng
At first glance, Francois Prost's photograph of the Eiffel Tower looks like it was taken on any given day in Paris. But just outside the frame are clues that the structure in his picture is nowhere near the Champ de Mars: Chinese script adorns all the shop signs, and there is no shortage of canteens serving up fried rice. That's because Prost didn't capture that image in France— he captured it 6,000 miles away in a facsimile of the City of Light.
Tianducheng is a Paris-inspired housing development on the outskirts of Hangzhou, China. Its 12 square miles feature rows of Haussmann-style apartment blocks, neoclassical statues, and a third-scale model of, yes, the Eiffel Tower. You can even visit the Arc de Triomphe and the gardens of Versailles.
And of course, the Eiffel Tower is a third of its real size, but nonetheless must be interesting to explore and compare to the real thing.
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Side-By-Side Photos of Paris and Its Chinese Knockoff The matches aren’t always perfect, but that makes them all the more fascinating. |