How China’s fake Paris impressed a French photographer with the Eiffel Tower and more
When Parisian photographer Francois Prost visited the Hangzhou neighbourhood of Tianducheng he was fascinated by the duplication of his home city. His images in an exhibition in Paris show there’s much more to the Chinese city than an Eiffel Tower replica
When Parisian graphic designer and photographer Francois Prost headed to the Hangzhou neighbourhood of Tianducheng in China’s eastern province of Zhejiang last November, he booked accommodation with a view of the Eiffel Tower.
“It was quite a convincing sight,” he says, “other than the fact that it is smaller than the actual Eiffel Tower – three times smaller – but still very impressive.”
The weird and wonderful, surreal nature of the creation is what attracted Prost to China in the first place, to see his home city constructed overseas on a grand scale in the suburbs of Hangzhou, in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
He knew before leaving that he wanted to capture details of Tianducheng – meaning Sky City – in photos, then compare them up close to the real thing.
“I just found the whole idea of duplication so compelling and fascinating. Tianducheng is immense,” he says.
