The famous Gondola Ride through the City of Venice can now be experienced in a place in China, earning it the title of Oriental Venice and the Venice of the East.

The replica of Venice, which opened this past Friday, is located in Dalian, Liaoning province. The Gondola Ride in China is complete with costumed gondolier and boats, as well as the ambience of a city submerged in water, which spans about 400,000 square meters.

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The project, which cost about five billion yuan ($790.15 million), was constructed by Haichang Holdings, a Chinese theme park operator.

The city of Venice in Italy is renowned for the fact that it stands on water. The city is particularly popular among tourist due to its romantic gondola rides that passes through 4 km stretch of city  'streets' or canals, with beautiful Renaissance architecture and romantic ambiance.

This would all be replicated in the new Venice built in China. The aim of the project is reportedly to get many citizens cannot afford the expensive trip to Europe to see the real Venice. The park also contains hundreds of European castles modelled after the original ones in Italy.

While this project seems to have impressed a lot of netizens, the company behind it has been the target of criticisms for creating a duplicate Venice and being innovative.

This is not the first replica project to be created in China in recent years. There are replicas of several historical monuments across the country already, including the Egyptian Sphinx in the Hebei province. A theme park named Window of the World in Shenzhen also has replicas of famous buildings around the world such as the Eiffel tower in Paris.

Currently, only a part of the Oriental Venice has been opened. Its grand official opening has been scheduled for May 2016.

TagsVenice, gondola, venice of the east, oriental venice