I Seem to Recall ‘Building a City on Water’ Didn’t Make Any Sense, but There’s a Sequel
Hu Jun, 53, a retired accountant, was mesmerized by an advertisement for Venice Aquatic City and had put down cash for a new apartment within a week. “It’s just like being abroad, like living in Venice,” Hu said. (…)
The place looks a lot like a small town on the Thames River, but Wu’s new home is actually in a suburb of Shanghai. As China’s modernization continues to pull hundreds of millions of people from farms to cities and suburbs, a construction boom has given rise to a vast landscape of foreign-looking settlements.
These real-estate developments are the latest manifestation of the technique that has fueled China’s economic boom: making copies.
In Nanjing, there are Balinese retreats and Italian villas. In the southeastern city of Hangzhou, there are Venice and Zurich. In downtown Beijing, everything is about Manhattan, with Soho, Central Park and Park Avenue.
“Many people in China today associate the exotic with wealth. They buy into these developments to differentiate themselves from ordinary people,” said Tino Wan, a manager of ERA Real Estate in Shanghai. { Seattle Times | Continue reading }
