BEIJING — Tourists hoping to beat the crowds at the Great Wall of China may want to visit a replica wall instead.

Photographs published online show recent visitors at the “fake Great Wall”, a 4km-long replica in Nanchang in eastern Jiangxi province, some 1,500km away from the real structure.

The imitation of the ancient site is built on a range of hills like the original, with sections divided with watchtowers.

Nevertheless, it pales in comparison to the original structure, which stretches for nearly 9,000km.

Parts of the Great Wall, a Unesco World Heritage site, were built during the Qin dynasty (221BC-207BC), but most structures remaining date to the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

The fortifications, built using stone, brick, wood and other materials, were meant as a line of defence against enemy invasions.

The pictures of the replica in Nanchang were greeted with a mixed response on Chinese social media.

“The Great Wall cannot be copied as its historical meaning cannot be replicated!” one commenter wrote.

Another joked: “This Nanchang ‘Great Wall’ is quite good. There’s no copyright, is there?”

A school in Wuhan in Hubei province showed off a replica stretch of the Great Wall two years ago after spending 4 million yuan (S$809,004) on the structure, according to media reports.

China is notorious for copying famous buildings and structures — imitations of structures including the Eiffel Tower and the Statue of Liberty can be found on the mainland.

Last year, British artist Wendy Taylor accused a Shanghai sundial of being a copy of her iconic sculpture Timepiece, which has been a London landmark next to Tower bridge since 1973.

In 2014, a replica of Egypt’s iconic Sphinx was dismantled in Hebei province after an Egyptian ministry complained about the structure. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST