

The Chinese love for imitation, from clothing to buildings and even entire cities, appears to be as strong as ever, with the opening on Sunday of the gates to a replica version of Venice in China’s northeastern city of Dalian.

The project, currently in its first stage, will reportedly be host to four kilometers of canals that will pass through more than 200 European-style ‘castles’, writes NetEase.

The canal network, being built in the Donggang business district, is set to occupy 400,000 square meters and will set investors back a cool 5 billion Chinese Yuan.

At present, a one kilometer stretch of the canal is open to the public, who have had the chance to ride in Venetian-style gondolas and admire the classical European-style architecture.

Despite many netizens professing their admiration for the copied buildings, some have criticized domestic architecture for not being innovative enough.

We will have to turn once again to Xi Jinping to see what he thinks, after his no more weird architecture plea.











By Robert Ridley

[Images via NetEase]

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