Simulacra, Hengdian

Forbidden City, Beijing
Forbidden City, Hengdian World Studio, Zhejiang Province (the mountains are kind of a giveaway)
Another view of the Forbidden City, Beijing
and the ersatz Forbidden City, Hengdian World Studio, Zhejiang Province

"NPR reports:
In just 10 years, Hengdian [World Studio] has transformed itself from a poverty-stricken farming village to a collection of replica palaces, temples and historical streets, open to film crews, often for free."

"These aren't just replicas, they're full-size reproductions. It's an amazing and terrifying verisimilitude. Even more so because China's very real history is being projected onto the structures themselves -- really just facades and empty shells -- outside the context of the in-film world.
In China - where old buildings are torn down in the blink of an eye - many visitors say they haven't come for the movie glamour, but to learn about their country's past - from the fake buildings."

more images

[source: life without buildings & Wiki]