One of Beijing’s most famous canal towns is Gubei. It’s two hours from the city center — and unlike other canal towns, Gubei is man-made.
Overview of Gubei Water Town, Beijing, China on Sept. 2021.
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Gubei is located in Simitai Village. It covers an area of nine square kilometers (three square miles). It’s the only canal town in northern China, according to Beijing-based magazine That’s Mags.
While it has drawn comparisons to Western cities like Venice, Chinese media reports indicate Gubei is modeled after Chinese canal towns. One report said Gubei is designed to resemble Suzhou, a city in eastern China known for its natural waterways. Another said the canal town is a replica of Wuzhen in southern China.
“The town sometimes is referred to as ‘the Oriental Venice,'” Wen-Chi Liao, an associate professor at Singapore’s NUS Business School, told Insider. In spite of Gubei’s nickname likening it to Venice, Liao said the town was created to bolster China’s “cultural identity,” rather than to imitate Western canal towns.
Several investment companies and the local government funded the construction of Gubei, according to tour website Tour Beijing.
