Picturesque village of Hallstatt in Austria (© Karolos Trivizasa / Getty)

Austria totally mad at China for cloning its cute village

6/7/2012

The world's biggest Chinese knock-off could be a new tourist attraction in the country's southern province of Guangdong, which is a near-perfect clone of the picturesque Austrian mountain village of Hallstatt. While thousands of Chinese visitors are expected to flock to the new Hallstatt, which officially opened last Saturday, some of the old Hallstatt's residents aren't happy their home was ripped off without their permission. One Hallstatt resident complained she was "disappointed," while another deemed it "unacceptable." Hallstatt's mayor Alexander Scheutz was much more diplomatic: He signed a cultural exchange agreement with the replica town, and said it made him "very proud."

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