Hangzhou, or Paris...huh?

So, where do you think this picture is? If you've read my blog, you might be able to guess. No, it's not the City of Lights. It's Hangzhou! Who'd of thought there was an entire Parisian neighborhood in China?


China likes to copy...the students copy their papers from the Internet, businesses copy product designs and logos, and cities even copy architecture. Case in point, Paris in Hangzhou. A group of Chinese investors came together to build a Paris-themed real estate park known as Tianducheng (read more about it in this Huffington Post article).

Walking through the Parisian avenue is ever more creepy because it lacks a key element of Paris: people. Near the main road there are a few dozen shops, but as you walk through the area you quickly realize that hardly anyone actually lives here. There were only a few pedestrians milling around, but Joanna said when she first came, in February last year, the place was even more deserted.

One reason why Paris-lite never took off was location. It takes an hour to get downtown, and there isn't much public transportation, save for one or two bus routes. Supposedly the subway was supposed to connect Tianducheng with central Hangzhou, but the stop never materialized.

Joanna and I took my motorbike part-way, and then hopped on a bus to explore the area one Saturday afternoon. Aside from the tower and apartment blocks, there was also a scenic lake nearby; maybe it was an attempt at the French Riviera? Regardless, it was a nice little trip to something completely different than the rest of the city--and completely unexpected.

Here are more pics from that afternoon: