China has built copycat versions of everything from world landmarks to Apple stores, but one of its more ambitious knockoffs has to be Florentia Village, a replica Italian town replete with canals, mosaics, and ornate fountains.
The village, which sprang up near the port city of Tianjin in 2011, is actually an outlet mall with more than 200 shops. And while classic Italian brands like Fendi, Gucci, and Prada are represented, there are also British, US, and China-based retailers in the mix.
But people don't just come to Florentia Village for designer goods.
"It's better than the Italian Embassy building in Beijing,"one visitor told The Telegraph."The architecture here is truly splendid, so I came to enjoy the aspect of the place and take pictures. I'll try to sell them to the tourism websites."
And unlike a knockoff version of an Austrian village that had residents of the original town in an uproar last year, Florencia Village has a stamp of approval — it was built by an Italian developer.
Welcome to Florentia Village, on the outskirts of Tianjin in northern China.
Accessible from Tianjin and Beijing by high speed rail, it gets between 10,000 and 25,000 visitors a day.
The shopping center, which covers around 50 acres, was constructed in a former cornfield and opened in June 2011.
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