It used to be that you traveled around the world to see different places and cultures. You jumped on a boat and headed to the other side of the globe and came across a place that was totally unique. Of course as travel got easier inevitably those different places started looking…a little similar. In the US at least, many cities and towns no longer have much of an identity…afterall, one highway exit ramp strip mall looks a lot like any another.
Well it seems that several countries, when faced with the challenge of building new towns and cities are opting to copy famous cities from different parts of the world. Instead of trying to create a new town that has it’s own history developing countries are simply recreating pre-existing cities. Dubai is the latest to throw their hat into the ring. They are planning to build a 700 acre version of the French city in the middle of the desert.
But Dubai is not alone of course. Las Vegas is famous for recreating famous world cities on the strip with the New York Hotel & Casino, the Venetian, and Paris Las Vegas. But those are all resorts and casinos. What happens when our cities and towns start to become carbon copies?
This looks like a picture of Paris, but it’s actually a recreation of the city being built in the area of Tianducheng in China. But that’s not the only one, the Chinese are using their newfound wealth to recreate a number of world landmarks and cities. Some other recreated cities include Venice and London.
But that’s not all. Shanghai has ambitious plans for a ring of settlements around the city based on European locations.
Perhaps in response to this growing trend, Egypt is attempting to copyright the pyramids and other recognizable landmarks. This issue will come up more and more as globalization heats up and questions about ownership of culture begin to surface.
Have an example of another cloned city? Post it in the comments!
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