Can You Tell the Difference Between China’s Fake ‘Paris’ and the Real One?

While the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France is among the world’s most recognizable landmarks, images of its less popular replica found in China can still deceive even the most discerning observer.

Check the images of two tourists below doing the infamous Eiffel tower pose. One of them is in Paris posing with the real thing, while the other is with a replica situated in the suburbs of Tianducheng city in China. Can you guess which is which?

Both images are from “Paris Syndrome,” a new photo series by Paris-based photographer François Prost, according to Fast Co.Design.

In Prost’s collection of photos, he made a fascinating comparison of the popular locations and landmarks from France’s capital with similar structures found in China.

Such buildings are easily found in Tianducheng aka “Sky City”, where a French-themed housing estate has been in development since 2007.

Not only does it have a 108-meter-tall (354-foot) replica of the Eiffel Tower, it also has a massive 11-square mile residential area of Parisian style architecture, fountains, and landscaping.

A theme park modeled after Versailles is also currently in development.

For his photography project, Prost took photos of the architecture found in China’s Sky City and the people who reside and visit it. When he returned to Paris, he recreated the same scenes in France.

Some images from China’s impressively detailed replica city are almost indistinguishable from those in Paris, albeit with some slight variations.

While indeed, at times, a restaurant’s decoration featuring Chinese characters would give it away, overall, the resemblance is practically uncanny.

Great works of art such as the Mona Lisa and the portrait of King Louis XIV also make an appearance in some of the structures’ interiors.

If you still can’t tell, all of the pictures on the left side were done in China while all pictures on the right side were done in Paris. Prost intends to publish the photographs of Paris and fake Paris in a book later this year.

Feature Image via François Prost

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