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China Pirates Austrian Village

First time accepted submitter thecoolstacks writes "Knockoff Apple Stores are one thing...but a knockoff Austrian village? That's some hardcore piracy right there, but we guess leave it China to do what it does best. From the article: 'After a year of construction and a price tag of $940 million dollars, the Chinese have successfully recreated the Austrian village of Hallstatt in its entirety over in the Southern Guangzhou Province. And let’s just say not every Austrian’s a fan of having their UNESCO heritage site ripped off. But since China is Austria’s second largest trading partner, what are you gonna do?'"

34 of 150 comments (clear)

  1. Pirates? by Spritzer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously? Pirated? How about mimics, copies, or "builds replica of". I guess the next time I build a table for a friend based on another design I'll be a patch wearing, one-legged, parrot lover too. Ridiculous!!

    1. Re:Pirates? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    2. Re:Pirates? by purpledinoz · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I guess Las Vegas pirated the Eiffel Tower, New York, and Venice... the copy is never is good as the original.

    3. Re:Pirates? by MyFirstNameIsPaul · · Score: 4, Informative

      And Washington state pirated a Bavarian Village.

      --

      I once took an excursion to Reddit, and later HN. Unlimited up/down voting sucks when dealing with a hive-mind.

    4. Re:Pirates? by Lumpy · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry, I did not read the stories of how Blackbeard the pirate would copy someone's idea.

      Yarr me maties! Le'ts copy that ship! Get out yer measurin' thingies and cameras!

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    5. Re:Pirates? by flyneye · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yeah, I'm not sure about outrage as a response, either. Isn't the sick enticement of instant vacation to take you somewhere else, cheaply?
      Disney did this decades before China. ( I notice that not unlike China, Disney also twists propaganda into stories to indoctrinate children politically)
      Think about it a while and the concept is mirrored in everything from restaurants to Indian theme summer camps, from Las Vegas theme casinos to dude ranches.
      Someones culture is borrowed, chewed, swallowed,digested and packaged for mass consumption. So China copies a town, big deal.

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    6. Re:Pirates? by Idbar · · Score: 4, Funny

      You just wait... when the Village Industry Association of America (or Austria) comes after them... it's not going to be funny.

    7. Re:Pirates? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You probably found the reason for the European economical problems. Can you imagine all those tourists in Vegas that should actually be spending their money in the Eiffel tower, Venice and others? If a CD goes for 100,000$ penalty, then a single Eiffel tower with thousands of tourists every week could probably wipe out the entire European debt.

      Problem solved.

    8. Re:Pirates? by Talennor · · Score: 2

      So did Georgia. Not a bad place, but touristy, and the most redneck Bavarian village I've ever been to.

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      //TODO: signature
  2. Already Posted to Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This has already been posted on the main page a good fortnight ago. The article is available here: http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village

    1. Re:Already Posted to Slashdot by deniable · · Score: 4, Funny

      China pirated the story.

  3. Dupe by DiSKiLLeR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dupe.

    http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village

    To be fair, its more than a day or two. But only 2 weeks ago.

    --
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    1. Re:Dupe by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Funny

      Quick! Go find a +5 post and past it into this story! Instant karma! Like I did copying this post from the previous dupe!

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:Dupe by ignavus · · Score: 5, Funny

      Dupe.

      http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village

      To be fair, its more than a day or two. But only 2 weeks ago.

      So, it is a duplicate of a story about a duplicate of a village?

      --
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    3. Re:Dupe by LordLucless · · Score: 4, Funny

      I think you mean "pirated"

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
    4. Re:Dupe by Planar · · Score: 2

      So, it is a duplicate of a story about a duplicate of a village?

      Yeah. Next on Slashdot: "Slashdot pirates itself!"

    5. Re:Dupe by wvmarle · · Score: 5, Informative

      Submitters also really have a problem with the location.

      First article: not mentioned.

      This article: false location. It is in Guangzhou (also known by its old English name of Canton) all-right, but that's the name of a city, not a province. This city in Guangdong province, which is in the south of China. There is no "Southern Guangzhou Province" in China.

    6. Re:Dupe by Inda · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure that'll work, but here goes:

      Dupe.

      http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/06/05/2332224/china-secretly-clones-austrian-village

      To be fair, its more than a day or two. But only 2 weeks ago.

      --
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  4. Hmm, pirating real Austrians.... by Yosho-sama · · Score: 2

    ...going to be more difficult. The Chinese have two alternatives.

    1. They can abduct thousands of people to populate their village or more likely

    2. They're going to user their citizens as knock off Chinese imitations of Austrians. In which case, I am booking a flight to China to see this place immediately.

    --
    My kingdom for a donkey!
  5. Villages are copyrighted? by EdIII · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously, how do articles like this get accepted in the first place?

    China made a village in the exact style, placements, etc. of an Austrian village. Piracy? Piracy, hardcore, piracy is what China does best? What kind of baseless insult is that? Is this news, or some emotional butthurt editorial from an Austrian?

    Does that mean that large parts of China Town ripped off China? Las Vegas ripped off France with its mini Eiffel Tower?

    Get real. I can't even believe this is an article. Should not have even made it to Idle.

    1. Re:Villages are copyrighted? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Far more interesting (to me) is that they built it in just one year. We are not talking cheap high-rise blocks thrown up, there is some real skill and craftsmanship here.

      --
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  6. China is Austria’s second largest trading pa by node159 · · Score: 4, Informative

    "China is Austria’s second largest trading partner".

    Umm... I think you may have Austria and Australia confused. Austria is that tiny country in the middle of Europe known for the 'Sound of Music', the birth place of Hitler, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Josef Fritzl (serial incestual rapist), the alps ... but not so much for kangaroos.

    --
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  7. Re:China is Austria’s second largest trading by pahles · · Score: 2

    No, Austria and Australia didn't get mixed up. You don't think China could be their second largest trading partner, right after, let's say, neighbor country Germany?

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    Sig?
  8. Herp derp bigotry by sco08y · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That's some hardcore piracy right there, but we guess leave it China to do what it does best.

    That's some writing a small child would be ashamed of, but we leave it to Slashdot editors to fail at what they fail at best.

  9. Re:China is Austria’s second largest trading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Nope. Unsurprisingly, the major trade partners are mostly their immediate neighbors and other EU member states. According to the statistical office of the austrian government, the most important trading partners are (export numbers in 2011):

    1) Germany: 31.1%
    2) Italy: 7.6%
    3) United States: 5.2%
    4) Switzerland: 4.9%
    5) France: 4.1%
    6) Czech Republic: 3.9%
    7) Hungary: 3.1%
    8) UK: 3%
    9) Poland: 2.8%
    10) Russian Federation: 2.4%
    11) China: 2.4%

    That's quite a bit distant from being the second most important trade partner, so I think it's very likely that someone confused the two countries:

  10. You wouldn't steal a car, ... by El_Muerte_TDS · · Score: 2

    You wouldn't steal a house, You wouldn't steal a city.

    But you're free to build one exactly like it (more or less "copy it") and use it the way you like.

    1. Re:You wouldn't steal a car, ... by silentcoder · · Score: 2

      Quick, somebody call Commissioner Gordon ! We need to get the batsignal lit !

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
  11. An exact copy? by Clifton+Beach · · Score: 2

    Much like this story, then.

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  12. Public domain by introcept · · Score: 3, Insightful

    At 500+ years old, I'm fairly sure the 'village' is in the public domain

  13. Re:Oh God.. by azalin · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh God... the ninjas... they're turning into pirates!

    Thank you for the image of a black clad ninja with a wooden leg and a parrot on his shoulder. Now all they need to do is to find out how to move silently while saying "Arrrrh!" at the same time.

  14. Re:China is Austria’s second largest trading by azalin · · Score: 3, Informative

    And Red Bull, the croissant, coffee names so weird it would make even starbucks blush and a generally twisted naming scheme for food (a popular sausage is called a "Eitrige" - the ulcerous). No kangaroos though.
    According to Statistik Austria, China had an export share of 2.4% ranking eleventh. The top three would be Germany (31.1%), Italy (7.6%) and the United States 5.4%. They do import a lot from China (rank 4) but less than 5%.
    So yes, someone probably mixed those two up or didn't check the facts.

  15. I applaud the Chinese and I'm Austrian. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Austria is being paved over with highways, strip malls, excessive parking, soulless suburbs and soviet style housing projects at breakneck speed. Our decadent and postmodernist elites plunck down atrocities like these (Kunsthaus Graz) into the middle of our beautiful town centers.
    The income from tourism provides the only political motivation for some restraint. Funny how tourists aren't interested in any places or buildings that were built during the last 60 years. But even this concern is considered parochial and therefore under constant attack from the (pseudo)intellectual class. To preserve what is beautiful is disparaged as "wishing to live in a museum". A redoubled effort to build even more brutalist and grotesque structures on the other hand is alleged to bring a more "sophisticated" set of tourists.

    Great civilizations imitate and learn from the achievements of the past and others and build upon it. The modernism and postmodernism of the West on the other hand seeks to wipe the slate clean and start from scratch. The result is perpetual dilettantism.

    The Chinese are on the right track. I wish they would copy more or even build an Austrian town here in Austria.

    1. Re:I applaud the Chinese and I'm Austrian. by Lazy+Jones · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Funny how tourists aren't interested in any places or buildings that were built during the last 60 years.

      That's wrong for Vienna (e.g. Hundertwasserhaus) and it's probably just as wrong for Graz. The most prominent architecture was always novel and radical and just because some examples were simply not good, you cannot discredit modern architecture in general. Would we have the buildings like the Secession if we had always stuck to preserving traditional styles? In a few decades, we'll wish we had built more buildings like the new Sofitel (Jean Nouvel!). Sadly, people are more keen on preserving ugly 1950's buildings on the other side of the Wienkanal than having great modern architecture like the French for example.

      --
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  16. Re:Oh God.. by Critical+Facilities · · Score: 2
    • Pirate:

    What's a pirate's favorite letter of the alphabet?

    • Landlubber:

    RRRRRRRRRRR

    • Pirate:

    Aye, you'd think it would be the RRRR, but it's the C.