By Chris Chang, posted Oct 17, 2011 at 4:25 PM, 1,487 views,

Chinese Village Rips Off World’s Most Famous Landmarks, Including U.S. Capitol

The village of Huaxi in Jiangsu Province is the richest village in China. Each resident has at least US$250,000 in the bank. Each resident also owns their own villa and has at least two cars. Here’s the best part, they get to see the world’s most famous landmarks every day, without ever setting foot on a plane. Video after the break.

Huaxi village is now the home to replicas of seven of the world’s most famous structures – from the Statue of Liberty and Arc de Triomphe, to the Great Wall of China, Tiananmen rostrum and Sydney Opera House. The replicas of global landmarks are intended to boost its tourism-related business, and the village has invested a lot of money in these replicas. More photos of the rip-offs below.

However, the replicas have not necessarily proved to be popular. They began to draw complaints from Chinese netizens as soon as photos of them were put online. Most of the critics blamed the village for showing off its wealth at a time when many similar places are still struggling to emerge from poverty. Here’s what a Chinese netizen said,

“It would be much wiser if Huaxi village chose to donate the money to other villages that don’t have as much money, instead of putting up these lavish buildings.”

And here’s what an official in charge of Huaxi village’s tourism industry said to the local media,

“We copied places of interest in China to show people how beautiful our country is and to make them feel more patriotic. The replicas of foreign places of interest also help attract more tourists to our village.”

Interestingly, we are not only seeing replicas of the famous landmarks outside of China, there are knockoffs of Tiananmen and the Great Wall of China. Here’s what the vice president of Chinese property developer Zhongyi Holding Co,. said,

“Tiananmen should apply for a patent. Otherwise the replicas of Tiananmen will come out constantly.”

Anyway, this is not the first time we see famous buildings getting ripped off. We remember the fake Apple stores that are selling real Apple products in a setting remarkably similar to Apple’s trademark retail stores. And we’ve also seen the World Joyland — a park that includes a section that appears to be based on the World of Warcraft online game. So, we hope the Huaxi village builds a fake Apple store for residents to purchase the latest Apple products, maybe they can try ripping off the glass cube!

Source: China Daily via AppleDaily