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series of cookie-cutter tract homes. Some are painted in pastels and are Italianate or Spanish in design, while others are more Georgian Revival. Manicured lawns and clubhouses dot the landscape. There is the occasional golf course. Neighborhoods are gated and carry names like Le Leman Lake, Capital Paradise, Yosemite and River Garden.

Wish to live in Australia? Beijing residents can buy a home at Sydney Coast, a subdivision that offers its residents a "seven-day Australian-style villa life."

The company is also developing Upper East Side, a large series of apartment buildings in northeastern Beijing.

Napa Valley attempts to capture a Californian Mediterranean lifestyle of laid-back, al fresco leisure.

"Rustic stone is widely used, with rich stucco colors, along with wood shutters and wrought-iron accents, to create an intimate scale and village-like feel," according to Napa Valley's architects and planners, who are based in Palm Springs and Newport Beach (Orange County).

craving to recreate life in 17th century France, there is Chateau Regalia,

homes are an eccentric amalgam of French Baroque and neoclassical architecture

[/i]like something out of baghdad?[i]

French town, an Italian town, an English town and so on. Each will have its own commercial center.

After decades of insularity -- a period whose residential architecture consisted mostly of drab, Stalinist apartment blocks -- China's nouveaux riches are giddy with excitement and eager to recreate the lifestyles of developed countries they have long gazed at from a distance.

Ness says, "an expensive residence is considered as a major symbol of status across the board.">>