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With a 354-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower at the centre, the vegetable gardens in the Chinese town of Tianducheng may be the world's most elaborate allotment.

Where greens and radishes grow were supposed to be the beautifully manicured gardens of a development built to be just like Paris.

But those plans were abandoned when developers ran out of money and the garden became overgrown and unsightly.  

A 354-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower stands at the centre of the failed Paris copycat development in the Chinese town of Tianducheng

Manicured gardens were supposed to beautify the town but locals have instead created vegetable gardens at the foot of the attraction

The few residents who remain in Tianducheng are happy with the gardens say it's better than having weeds taking over the space

Sensing an opportunity locals have stepped in to make the most of the space and now their vegetables are flourishing in the shadow of the bizarre landmark.  

Tianducheng, in the city of Hangzhou in the east China province of Zhejiang, opened with great fanfare in 2007 with Parisian-style houses and its own Arc de Triomphe.

Its one-third scale Eiffel Tower (the real one is 1,063 feet) looks remarkably realistic, but wasn't enough to entice the 10,000 residents developers hoped for. Just 2,000 moved in and local media refer to it as a ghost town.  

With the tower starting to rust and a lift to the top never coming to fruition, the few residents who remain are largely happy about the vegetable plots saying they are more appealing than weeds. 

Tianducheng opened with great fanfare in 2007 but fell substantially short of their 10,000 resident target

Developers ran out of money and have failed the complete the project, which is now largely farmland and abandoned residential towers

The developers blame Tianducheng's location for its failure. 

Copycat towns are no new concept in China, with Italian city of Venice recreated in the port city of Dalian in China's north-eastern Liaoning province. 

The World Heritage-listed Austrian Alps village of Hallstatt has also been mimicked in Guangdong province, much to the disapproval of those from the original.