WENZHOU, China – A replica of Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch on an island north of Shanghai is the latest in a series of Chinese tributes to US landmarks, but not the last.
The RMB 100 million (USD 15 million) replica will be the centerpiece of an agricultural sightseeing park where visitors can sample rural cuisine and listen to Chinese folk music.
In addition to Neverland II, the Chinese government will construct a replica of the CBS Evening News room, in tribute to late anchorman Walter Cronkite.
The newsroom, which officials say will be exact in every detail except for the liberal new bias, will be built on the location of the former new headquarters of the state television network, CCTV, in Beijing’s Central Business District, which in July was destroyed by fire.
A third replica, with an aviation theme, will begin construction in September. Located near China’s Lingshui Air Base on Hainan Island, the project’s aim is to produce a clone of Edwards Air Base in California.
When completed in 2014, it will feature copies of the space shuttle, Delta IV rocket, F-15 fighter, B-52 bomber, CH-46/47 Chinook helicopter and other aerospace and military technologies.
Blueprints for the aerospace copies were donated by Dongfan “Greg” Chungm, who was convicted July 16 of economic espionage and of acting as an agent for the People’s Republic of China.
Replicas of the White House, the Washington Monument and Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets have already been completed.
