Chinese Cloned Cities Around The World

on

Building copies of famous world landmarks are done for practical purposes. And not just for the sake of beauty, as in Brussels.

businessinsider.com

So what this Chinese imitation is connected with, that they decided to recreate the world in miniature? Isn't the Chinese culture unique enough, that they need personal arch?
Unless their architecture is not original, someone needed to build another Tower Bridge in Suzhou?
Maybe the Chinese are just tired of traveling, so they decided to build their own Manhattan with Rockefeller center and the Hudson, instead of having to go to New York? 

Cobbled streets, Victorian homes, and corner pubs make Thames Town, in the Songjiang District near Shanghai, feel supremely English. Some of the buildings are exact replicas of those found in England. It, like a few more towns on this list, is part of the 1 City — 9 Towns residential project, which was meant to lure people out of overcrowded Shanghai to live out their European fantasies in one of nine Europe-inspired villages.
businessinsider.com
Some famous architects even speculated that this strange national trend of imitation is related to the attempts to establish its world domination.
In general, the real motives are not clear to anyone. They are very well illustrated, for what purpose all this is done. And goals are very practical. 
Reproduction of architectural attractions by the Chinese is done not in order to admire this beauty as a monument, and to enjoy all of this for their own convenience. 

A few hours outside of Shanghai you'll come across Tianducheng, a wannabe Paris that features a 354-foot replica of the Eiffel tower. However, despite being surrounded by a residential area designed to accommodate 10,000 people, the copycat city is largely empty.
businessinsider.com
So, for example, copies of Orthodox churches with gilded domes they have built in Beijing are some kind of administrative buildings for officials. 
Do not think that these all are public projects. All copies are financed by private individuals or for business purposes.
So some Chinese oligarchs were struck by the beauty of the French castle in Paris, so they decided to recreate at home a kind of a copy.