Would you like to live in a Victorian home without living in London? Would you like to live along a canal, in front of a windmill, but without having to live in Amsterdam? Find yourself at the feet of the Eiffel tower, strolling along the Champs Elysées but without being in Paris? Every dream becomes reality in China. In the vicinities of Shanghai, the ultra-modern pearl of the Orient, site of the World Expo in 2010, the latest trend is that of building veritable residential areas in a western style: streets, squares, churches, buildings and monuments that faithfully reproduce a corner of Europe. The cloned New Towns are very much liked by the new Chinese middle-class and many have already decided to move there. Those who cannot afford to buy an apartment are satisfied to go visit it in the weekend: to feel a bit more westerly and to imagine that Europe is, after all, nearby.

Europe made in China