China is famous for its "duplitecture," but one recent example, a larger-than-life-sized replica of the Sphinx, outraged Egypt so much that it called on UNESCO to issue a cultural cease and desist. The structure will now be demolished. The fake Sphinx was built in a cultural park in Shijiazhuang, in China's northern Hebei province, and reportedly took only a couple of months to construct. It's about 30 meters high and 80 meters long, and built out of steel-reinforced cement. A park spokesperson says the Sphinx was only built as a movie props and was always intended to be temporary anyway. Temporary or not, the fake Sphinx certainly drew a crowd, with street food vendors popping up around it to take advantage of the tourist trade. However, Egyp's minister of antiquities, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the replica Sphinx contravened UNESCO's 1972 Convention and is "a violation of Egypt's rights to its cultural heritage and a bad imitation that disfigures the original." Ouch! The park's spokesperson counters that "We did not use it for commercial purposes and did not charge fees from visitors, nor do we intend to make it a tourist attraction," but the park has agreed to dismantle the structure anyway and regrets the misunderstanding. Anyone knows that China is famous for its duplitecture. But did you know that there's a faux Eiffel Tower in China, as well as an entire copy of the city of Venice, complete with gondola-lined canals? In the past few years, builders in China have replicated world-famous buildings and landmarks at a remarkable pace - from the world's first cloned Austrian mountain village to reproductions of the White House, entire English villages and even new architect designs that haven't been built yet, like Zaha Hadid's Wangjing Soho complex. Recently Officials in a Beijing suburb have sidestepped President Xi Jinping's crackdown on government waste by building themselves a lavish office complex reminiscent of the Kremlin. Mentougou, a largely rural district in western Beijing with some 270 thousand residents, is now home to a group of government buildings with onion-shaped golden crowns, arched windows and white walls similar to the Cathedral of Annunciation, the five-century-old Russian Orthodox Church located inside the Kremlin in Moscow. In 2007 Chinese architects copied the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and the famous fountain in the gardens of the Palace of Versaille to make their own version of the French capital. Famous buildings and Parisienne style gardens are surrounded by rows of European-style villas in a special gated community called Tianducheng just outside Shanghai. Tianducheng's Eiffel Tower is 108 meters high. China has pulled off a feat that no other country would even dream of achieving: a cloned village. Every detail of the original Hallstatt village, a UNESCO protected heritage gem in Austria, has been copied in a replica situated one hour outside of Huizhou in Guangdong Province. China Minmetals Corporation announced their US$ 940 million plan to re-create the secluded hamlet in June, 2011, and just one year later in 2012, the place opened to visitors. Architect Zaha Hadid's Wangjing Soho complex in China has been praised by designers around the world. The design is so beloved that another developer in Chongqing is ripping it off! Designs of the three-building complex were released in 2011 and construction is already underway, but that hasn't stopped the rival developers from moving forward on a two-building version. Called the Meiquan 22nd Century, the design was clearly lifted from Hadid's plans, and now the two sites are racing to complete construction first. They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but Zaha Hadid may not agree with this pirated project. Her original design is a complex of three pebble-shaped curvilinear volumes, in true Hadid signature style. The Meiquan complex, although only having two buildings, is unmistakably similar to the Hadid project, and comes close to a direct copy.

The bidding war for the dirtiest hotel in America is about to come to an end with the winning bid expected to be around US$180 million. "It's the dirtiest, and best located hotel in New York City," Lawrence Wolfe, who has been handling the sale for the seller, told. "It was under-managed and neglected." The 600-room Hotel Carter, just off New York's Times Square on West 43rd Street, was a three-time "winner" of Tripadvisor's dirtiest hotel in America survey. Recent guests said the problems are far from fixed. "The location's great, but there's no hot water in the shower, " one guest exiting the hotel told CNBC. Her room rate? Just over US$ 200 for the night, she said. First opened in the 1930s as the Hotel Dixie, the Carter recently has been tied up as the estate of the former owner is settled. In recent years it has been in the news for code violations as well as a homicide. The sale, expected in the US$ 180 million range, will be followed by a full-gut renovation that will cost US$ 100 million to US$ 125 million, Wolfe said. It hasn't yet been determined if the hotel will close during renovations or if it will undergo construction in phases. When it reopens, it will remain an independent hotel, he said.

Hollywood studio DreamWorks Animation will partner with the company behind the London Eye Ferris wheel for a Shrek-themed attraction on the capital's South Bank. Shrek's Far-Far Away Adventure will be one of six similar sites across the globe. The attraction is due to open in summer 2015 and will celebrate the four-film animated fantasy saga about a grumpy green ogre that has so far taken more than US$ 3.5 billion at the worldwide box office, as well as other films from DreamWorks Animation. "The 1860 square meters experience will be based on a brand-new adventure being written by the DreamWorks team," said the studio and partner Merlin in a statement. "It will feature a Shrek interactive walk-through adventure, a character courtyard where visitors will be able to meet Shrek and his swamp friends, along with characters from Madagascar, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon." The attraction will be installed at County Hall, near the London Eye, the London Sea Life Aquarium and the London Dungeon, all of which are owned by Merlin. The theme park operator is the largest company of its kind in Europe. "We're excited to work with Merlin to build something that we think is going to be a singularly unique way to experience Shrek and his world," said DreamWorks Animation CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg. "This attraction is going to be unlike anything that currently exists and will undoubtedly become a new type of destination for families." The London Shrek attraction will be the first to open, with a further five sites set to be built between now and 2023.

A Skyscraper shaped like a giant doughnut has been completed in Guangzhou, China. Located on the edge of the Pearl River, the 138-meter Guangzhou Circle is an iconic headquarters for Chinese companies Guangdong Hongda Xingye Group and GDPE Guangdong Plastic Exchange. The architectural concept intends to design landmark building that will be immediately perceived as a native Chinese Landmark Building using a closed and central structure instead of the usual western skyscrapers stereotype. Therefore the architecture is fully defined, and iconic, very close to the Chinese way of perceiving and understanding. It's a sort of "urban logo" that works as a landmark in the same way that ideograms are used in the Chinese writing, instead of the alphabet. The architectural concept is inspired by the strong iconic value of jade discs and numerological tradition of feng shui. In particular, the double disc of jade (bi-disk) is the royal symbol of ancient Chinese dynasty that reigned in this area around 2000 years ago. The building reflected in the water of the river creates exactly the same image: a double jade disc. This figure also corresponds to the number 8 and infinity symbol that Chinese culture has a strong propitiatory value. Just remember how the date and time of the start of the Beijing Olympics was for the same reason fixed to 8:08 am of the '8-8-2008. But the building is also a clear reference to the theme dear to the Italian Renaissance "quadratura del cerchio" (squaring the circle). The two circular facades in fact contain and support suspended groups of story's that are actually "squaring" the perfect circumference of the facades in order to make the interior space orthogonal and habitable. The building has been designed by the Italian architect Joseph di Pasquale and his professional practice AM project from Milan that has been the winning proposal of the international architectural competition held in 2009. The total height of the building is 138 meters and incorporates 85,000 square meters of floor area. It features a giant hole with almost 50 meters in diameter. The floors are grouped in two rows of blocks visible from the side of the building, which are cantilevered up to 25 meters. The exchange hall is located underneath the central hole and functions as the heart of the entire complex.

Damac Properties, one the Middle East's largest luxury real estate developers, recently announced that every customer will receive a new car on select luxury property units sold during the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF). Customers buying a Damac Properties penthouse during DSF will be given a Lamborghini Aventador roadster with their purchase. Buyers in other select Damac Properties units will receive either a BMW or a Mini Cooper, depending on the size of the unit. "Damac Properties' DSF promotion is always highly anticipated and we see some of the best results of the year during this time," Niall McLoughlin, senior vice-president, Damac Properties said. In 2013, penthouse buyers were offered a 2014 Audi R8, buyers of three-bed units will be given an Audi A8, two bedrooms were given an Audi A6 and one bed got an Audi A4. During the economic crisis Dubai housing prices fall by 50 percent, but now the market recovers quickly. In 2013 house prices in Dubai increased by 20-30 percent. The growth mainly is due to the foreign buyers' activity.