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Though the area is hilly, there was not an
Alpine peak in sight and the waters of a nearby lake -- apparently the faux Lake Hallstatt to be
-- were green and murky. Instead of mirroring majestic Alpine mountaintops, several dead fish floated on the surface. Minmetals executive Crystal He says the developer plans to copy all of Hallstatt's touristic core. She said the project will spread over 20,000 square meters
-- nearly 5 acres -- and will include a shop selling Austrian-style glass crystal and other souvenirs. The subdevelopment will likely appeal not only to upscale Chinese but also "Caucasian people living in Hong Kong who are homesick," she said. Wenger, the Hallstatt hotel owner, noted the drawings in her possession show sections of Hallstatt in mirror image
-- possibly suggesting an effort to evade copyright claims. But Minmetals' He said the idea was never to copy the Austrian town down to its last details. There will be no issues with "so-called intellectual property," she said. Barbara Neubauer, the head of Austria's monument conservation office, which has placed much of the village under its authority, said there is nothing her office could do against copy-catters even if it wanted to. She said any legal action would be up to individual owners who felt their rights were violated by the Chinese. Wenger and Scheutz, the Hallstatt mayor, said no such moves are planned, with both expressing the conviction that ultimately the benefits of the Chinese copy will outweigh any hard feelings caused by the secretive approach. "Hallstatt has a centuries-old culture," says Scheutz. "This is something you cannot copy." Such sentiments are shared by at least some of the hundreds of Chinese visitors swarming Hallstatt daily during the summer months. "It feels as if I'm going to heaven," says 22-year-old Stacy Xianoquan Yuan of Shandong, when asked about the feelings that Hallstatt evoked. Her companion, Darren Yixin Chen, agrees. "They can never make it as perfect as here," says the 23-year old, from Shanghai.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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