China to Clone Austrian Hamlet

Evidently a team of people has been documenting Hallstadt down to the brick to prepare for the reconstruction. Locals have considered suing China to protect the city's rights. Columnist David Brussat thinks this would be too bad:

"Attempts to copy beauty used to be the dominant basis for the advance of every art in every place and every era (except our own). Copying whole townscapes might not be entirely edifying, but it obviously brings pleasure to multitudes, and endows designers and builders with practice in the crafts required to invest new architecture with more originality."