In 2007, the urban residential project named Guangxia Tianducheng was started in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province, China. Unlike many other projects, Tianducheng attracted public attention because of its goal of “recreating” the splendid capital of France, Paris.
Investors have spent more than 1 billion USD (more than 22,000 billion VND) to build the urban area with the ambition of making it the "Paris of the East". Built on a large area of 31 square kilometers not far from Hangzhou city, Thien Do Thanh has houses and architecture in a typical French style.
Every street, tree line and public building resembles many famous places in Paris. Haussmann-style apartment buildings and boulevards were built with huge investment, targeting wealthy homebuyers who love European style.
Project design photos and actual photos of Thien Do Thanh
The most distinctive feature of the billion-dollar project is the 108-meter-high replica of the Eiffel Tower, about one-third the size of the original. The architecture of the “Chinese Eiffel” is identical to the original, which has excited many people and predicted that Tianducheng will become a tourist attraction.
Eiffel Tower in China (left) and real Eiffel Tower in France
The urban area officially opened in 2007 and could be home to more than 10,000 residents. Despite the hype, the “Paris of the East” initially failed to sell as many apartments and villas as expected.
In 2013, an estimated 2,000 people lived in Tianducheng. The main reason why the urban area has not attracted buyers is said to be its inconvenient geographical location.
The town has been expanded since 2017.
However, by 2017, the population of “Chinese Paris” had increased to 30,000 people and the project had also been expanded many times. In 2023, Yes Theory - a Canadian media channel visited Tianducheng and filmed the current scene of this town. It can be seen that this place is not as bustling and crowded as many other cities in China.
Thien Do Thanh, like many other urban projects in the area, mainly attracts the elderly to live and retire.
Thien Do Thanh is now quite bustling and crowded, not abandoned as rumored many years ago.
Although built with the purpose of becoming a tourist destination, Thien Do Thanh has not attracted visitors as expected. Today, apart from Chinese couples coming to take wedding photos, the miniature Eiffel Tower does not seem to attract many tourists after 17 years.
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