A RESIDENTIAL area for local villagers in Danyang county, east China’s Jiangsu Province, immediately made the headline of the Chinese social media for its luxurious design and traditional European style architecture.

This exotic town, dubbed “the Chinese Venice”, covers one million square meters contains residential buildings accommodating 6,400 households, over 300 villas, and public infrastructure such as a community service center, schools, hospitals, and sewage plants as well as a lake.

Construction on the 100-hectare village started in 2006 with an investment of 3.75 billion yuan (around 600 million US dollars).

Many were shocked to see the beauty of a modern water town, comparing it to Venice in Italy.

Historically Danyang county was the hometown of the royal families of both the Southern Qi and Liang dynasties (420 – 557 AD). Emperors and royalties are no longer expected to live here today but ordinary villagers began to move into the new properties on December 30th, 2015.