There is a second Hallstatt, and it's in Guangdong, China.

How it happened

In 2012, a Chinese mining and real-estate company began construction on a full-scale replica of Hallstatt in Boluo County, Guangdong province — reproducing the lakefront houses, the church spire, and the general silhouette of the original village, reportedly at a cost exceeding a billion dollars. The project was initially kept quiet, and its existence surprised many residents of the real Hallstatt when it became public.

Why Hallstatt, specifically

The choice wasn't random. A 2006 South Korean television drama had already introduced Hallstatt to a large East Asian audience, and the village had built a reputation as an idealized, fairy-tale European destination well before the Chinese replica was announced — the same reputation that now drives a large share of the real village's tourist numbers.

What it's used for today

The Guangdong replica functions primarily as a residential and tourism development rather than a museum piece, with houses built in the Hallstatt style available for purchase and the site itself drawing domestic Chinese visitors curious about the real story behind it.

The feedback loop

The replica's media coverage — international news stories about a "copied" European village — arguably did more to spread Hallstatt's name globally than the original tourism wave from the 2006 drama alone, adding another layer to the same overtourism pressure covered on the day-trip planning page.