Replica of razed Chinese palace opens, but some prefer ruins

China already has its own copies of London’s Tower Bridge and the Eiffel Tower. Now a life-sized model by a film studio of one of the country’s own historical attractions — the Old Summer Palace — has ruffled the bosses of the original garden of emperors. Hengdian Studios in Zhejiang province is building a 30 billion yuan ($5 billion) film set of the 3.5-square-kilometer palace grounds in Beijing before they were razed and left in ruins by foreign forces more than 150 years ago. Critics say it’s a sell-out to tourism, while some historians say it preserves China’s heritage.

Some things just can’t be rebuilt once they are gone…it’s a kind of ignorance of our national humiliation.

Businessman Liu Yaming, 37, using

The attraction joins the ranks of other famous landmarks that have appeared in China. The eastern city of Suzhou has built bridges to look like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, among others. In nearby Hangzhou city, there’s a replica of the Champs Elysees. Last year, a copy of the Great Sphinx of Giza in Hebei province built by a film company raised the ire of the Egyptian government.

Arts Old Summer Palace