A girl dressed in a Japanese school uniform poses for a photo against what looks like the backdrop of one of Tokyo’s most famous shopping streets in the buzzing commercial district of Shibuya.

This may be a common scene in Japan’s capital, but standing opposite her are patrons lining up at a Chinese milk tea chain and ordering drinks in Mandarin off a menu written in simplified Chinese characters.

The street, almost an exact replica of Rokuchome Ichiban-gai with its iconic hanging red lanterns and Japanese neon signage, is China’s latest copycat attraction, having opened in Foshan in southern Guangdong province.

Stretching just 100 meters, “Foshan’s Ichiban street” features shop signs almost identical to Tokyo’s tourist hot spot, and even has fake bus stops and a Japanese taxi parked by the road to recreate the famous streetscape.

One Twitter user @dancingriver, who claimed to be a Japanese man living in Foshan, said minute details such as the bus stop timetable made it look almost like the real thing. The user visited the Ichiban street replica and posted several photos of it in a Twitter thread, attracting more than 5,000 likes.

Other internet users have been quick to point out duplication flaws. The driver’s seat in the fake taxi is on the left, which is how Chinese cars are manufactured, but Japanese cars put their drivers on the right.

Another netizen quipped that one would know the street was in China, judging by the amount of trash piled on the ground.

May Lam, a Japan travel writer, said the replica looked “soulless” and was just an empty shell.

“At a quick glance it does look real, but at the end of the day it’s a copycat. Why would I bother wasting my time looking at these photos when I’d rather look at the real thing,” Lam said. “I believe a place is founded on its culture; if you copied the Leaning Tower of Pisa somewhere else, it would just become a shell.”

A Japanese woman named Lena, who had lived in Hong Kong for 13 years, said that while individual components of “Foshan’s Ichiban street” looked almost identical, overall it was still no match for the original.

“It won’t usually be that dense … one or two signs look a bit strange, but I guess it’s still acceptable,” Lena said.

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