I still love that they built a German replica town specifically in a very rainy region as they associate rain with my country. And judging by the fact that i, living in one of the places with the best weather of the entire country, have been peltered by hail, snow rain and a rainstorm when walking my dog today, can't even disagree with that sentiment of theirs
Very entertaining Simon. I can just picture you walking around these towns with your mouth stuck open, eyes glaring and brain trying to make sense of it all!!
@@Sideprojects now give back my bull whip, I told you the cattle prod was for Danny. Leave it in the spare office. I'll grab it when I come out of my hidey hole.
I recall when these were first built, there were neither practical transport links for commuters nor any places to provide nearby work. Some combination of the two seem necessary for a suburban town. It was as if they built endless acres of holiday villas but no support infrastructure and very minimal tourism interest.
I live in China and it's not hard to find fish and chips and other Western food if you're in a big enough city. It can be hit or miss but I've had legitimately good burgers in China by American standards. In my experience fries/chips tend to be less salty and if a place doesn't ask you to specify how you want the meat cooked, it usually comes out medium or well. Kids in China also love eating pizza and burgers. Cakes are usually a bit different and many apartments don't have ovens for people to bake their own. One of the most popular bakeries, at least where I live and many other cities I've visited, is Paris Baguette. Don't be fooled by the name though, it's Korean. Their cakes tend to be a very light sponge cake with a 1 dimensional sweet flavor and a lot of whipped cream and fruit. Of course China is a big country and there will be differences experiences everywhere, this is what I've experienced.
Funny, also where I am in the US there are very few bakeries so the ones here are mostly Korean like one called "The French Bakery" and "85c", same situation. I went in thinking it was legitimate European.
When the city is sus! 😳 this reminds me of the South China Mall, the world's largest mall (in terms of gross leasable area). A place that has been a ghost mall for over a decade (though it's now bustling with activity) with areas modeled after Venice, Paris, Rome, Giza, Amsterdam, San Francisco, and the Caribbean. Yeah, they really tested the limits to see how many destinations they can throw in only one location.
@@livethefuture2492 hong kong is a different experience, british influence but, still uniquely chinese, been there many times, they're strict especially on tea time, if you want chinese tea sets then you get dumplings and all other chinese sets included, if you want british tea, you get with croutons, milk, biscuits and shops often don't have mixed designs, a shop owner told me that maintaining this kind of distinction is still what makes it unique
I went to Tianducheng yesterday, it's really weird. The balconies are full of hanging clothes, the paths and grass areas are full of dog poop and there were no restaurants other than cheap bun shops open. I saw a maximum of 100 people and half of those were 'aunties' line dancing under the eiffel tower. The park opposite was more disappointing, 50rmb each to get in and totally neglected, all falling apart.
In the USA you have towns built by immigrants in a natural way to look like their homeland all over the country like out here on the west coast there is Poulsbo WA that was built by Scandinavians. On the other hand you have authentic towns like Solvang California also originally built by Scandinavian immigrants but it has became more of a themed attraction for the most part. Then you have places like Leavenworth WA that was simply by a decision of the locals to theme their town as an Alpine village but it was done over time by locals so it kind of looks the part and the amazing mountains around the town make it really look the part.
since april 2020, copying international building / landmark is no longer allowed under the new regulation. new building design must observe the surrounding buildings & local design culture.
Replica Titanic now being built Sichuan province. ... Called the "Unsinkable Titanic" - A video about this and the cruise ship Titanic II set to launch in 2022 might be worthwhile - !
I remember in Civilization V when I was playing as Greece, I set up my capital Athens in Japan and then built the great lighthouse of Alexandria. This is Civ irl.
Been to a couple. Lived in China for 6 years. The Window of the World in Shenzhen is crazy! *commented at the start of the video. Probably gonna feature the English village and Paris among others.
This week on bottom gear China copies some European towns, Simon forgets he’s presenting side projects and a not so German German town is left half empty
Hello and welcome. Now you may wanted to go visit something, but you didn't want to travel all the way there. Or you don't want to eat the local food and therefore you had to spend your money at McDonald's (ask Hammond for that). Well now there's a SOLUTION for you and it's called copycat towns of famous cities close to your home. That means I don't have to endure an insufferable May while travelling and Hammond won't have to make the step and try something new to eat...
3:34 ...yeah. Visit some suburbs in France or Belgium (or others) and you will find that some places are vividly recreating a foreign lifestyle. It does not attract the locals either, strangely.
These towns remind me of the Twilight Zone episode “Stopover in a quiet town” where Barry Nelson and Nancy Malone wake up one day inside what seems to be a TV show set with no other people whatsoever
And Paris grew copying the layout of Lisbon that had to be re-build after an earthquake in 1755 that almost destroyed the city completely, was still one of the most important European ports ...this layout was drawn by free maçons that later used it has an inspiration for Paris...you could do a video about the destruction of Lisbon in 1755 and it's impact in Europe...not just in cities layouts but also in Philosophy, religion, first disaster to be considered natural, not a punishment of God..some say it was the birthplace of ...the study of earthquakes..I .can't remember how it's spelled actual word for it...
Simon has a been to the land of modern coping, strangely these people invented gunpowder, silk, compasses, and a million other things, a thousand years ago.
So,... I'm a Huge OGBB Simon Whistler fan.. I am also a fan Of Dark Docs etc... Anyone else think that Simon's speed on this one sounded like Dark Docs? Or am I crazy. Lol
Suggestion; The Soo Line High Bridge north of Stillwater, MN. It's over 100 years old, a national engineering landmark, and still used to this day. It also required the railroad to do a major line relocation; I have the right of way maps showing this stuff if you're interested! The bridge is an amazing structure.
As a Legend from the days when he had only 2 channels, my best guess is about 3-5 years. Personally, I love going back and watching his old cringe lmao. No beard, no glasses, he literally looks like a knob, if I got my UK slang correct.
You should do a side project, of your many different RU-vid channels, and how the people behind the camera what different people do, maybe do like a week of time as you put out different stuff on different days...
I'm not saying Pierce Brosnan did a bad Bond but I grew up with Roger Moore so My mind still stutters over Brosnan as the "best" Bond hehe An interesting idea, but it really does feel more like something that belongs in a theme park.
There is a reason why you western china hater have homeless and china almost don't. My government in California put most of their effort on transgender gay issue, sex issue, non document people issue, ect,ect, none that is tangible
Are you deaf Simon even said back then that it was filling up. In 2021 they are thriving. We are way ahead of the US in new infrastructures and social stability. The US is still waiting for their first High speed rail promised 25yrs ago.
I’m surprised no local had grabbed a gun and gone on a massacre in one of those “duplitecture towns” a cafe full of false empty books? Weirder than weird.
@@ravenestrella2310 no its a scaled down one. Also in several other Asian countries as well. I've seen 3 different ones so far while traveling here in asia
This sounds disturbingly like Disneyland Paris and other hotels and even theme parks that provide recreations of real world architecture in different countries, but they're all fake; it's like if you scratch the surface a tiny bit, it's all the same underneath. However, if you compare that to my local Chinatown (living in Australia), even though the architecture is also mirroring that of a different country, it still feels very authentic and like actually visiting a town in a different country - it has its own individualised culture that is completely real (and the point isn't that it's authentic traditional Chinese culture but that the society living there have their own culture that has grown organically here, influenced by a number of Asian countries but also wider Australian culture in general). I'm not sure how much of an effort China made to infuse these replica cities with real culture (besides cuisine), but it would be very difficult to transplant it. Even if they use accurate architecture and design aesthetic, things like the construction materials and decoration won't be accurate, and the buildings are copies without the history and context of the originals. Without authentic culture to create some meaning to it, I'm not sure how that would work. There are plenty of cities I'd love to live in, but not copies of them built as huge pre-planned fabricated-as-one artificial cities set down en mass by my own country's government or development companies - in fact, we have towns like that here in just a generic modern Western style, and they all still feel....fake.
So intellectual property isn't the only thing the Chinese copy? How bizarre to stand in the middle of a Paris scene, but instead of French you hear the a bunch of people loudly squawking away in Chinese.
This whole project feels uniquely Chinese in itself. No other country would attempt such a thing and expect locals to live there, it'd be like a Floridian moving into Epcot!
The reason that those "western towns" didn't sell well, is not the environment and atmosphere. Chinese love living in a western looking place, which looks modern. It's just they are too far away. We don't have the habit of driving to and back from work. So public transportation is still heavily relied on. So imagine a 2 hour trip between home and work… or even longer.
@@annarock8966 the difference is that many places in the us actually have people from those areas, china just creates dogshit copies of things (not just paying homage with the name) china does not embrace people from france, so it's idiotic that they copy architecture from places like paris when no sizable population has migrated from paris to china🤣 everything china does is a joke. pathetic nation
