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Article by Oliver Wainwright, Monday 7 January 2013 full text available onguardian.co.uk.With its soaring church spire, pastel-coloured chalets and splendid lakeside location, Hallstatt looks every inch a picture-postcard alpine town – a place that echoes with the sound of cowbells and yodelling, every windowbox overflowing with edelweiss. But this isn't Hallstatt in Austria. This one is in Huizhou city, in southern China.When it was reported last year that the ­Austrian town had been "secretly cloned", right down to its statues of angels, some ­residents were outraged. But the mayor, ­Alexander Scheutz, was over the moon. "We are very proud," he said, as he signed up to a cultural ­exchange with his town's new twin. It is now clear why: the clone has been a lucrative means of cultural ­promotion, with the number of ­Chinese visitors to the real Hallstatt jumping from 50 to 1,000 per year.Read more on The Guardian websiteRead alsoAndrea Du Martino, “ Europe made in China ” diaporama