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Cloned London Tower Bridge In Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China
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China is well known for leading the world in exporting goods, but these pictures of its very own Tower Bridge show the country is not adverse to importing a historical monument or two. To the untrained eye, visitors to Suzhou in the east of China may well believe they have ended up 9,000km away by mistake. The city in the Jiangsu province now boasts its very own - almost identical - version of London's most iconic bridge.
As if that's not enough to stave off homesickness for English visitors, the reproduction of the bridge also boasts a cafe at the top promising 'English-style coffee'. All that differs between the two replicas is that the Chinese version lacks a raising mechanism to allow boats to pass underneath.
And, of course, the Chinese model has twice as many towers as the original version spanning the River Thames. London is not the only city to have inspired builders in Suzhou. Sitting about 200 miles north-west of Shanghai, the area has become well known for cloning other world-famous landmarks. The river through the city also has its own Sydney Harbour Bridge, as well as a copy-cat Alexandre III Bridge straight out of the French capital, Paris. On top of that, the area boasts a Dutch town complete with windmill and Dutch-style housing. Suzhou is often dubbed the 'Venice of the East' and has been an important hub of China's silk industry for around a thousand years.
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