#trending: Netizens amused by replicas of Merlion, ERP gantries and other Singapore landmarks in Indonesian town

SINGAPORE — What makes Singapore? According to a property developer in Indonesia, it is the Merlion, Suntec City’s Fountain of Wealth and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries. 

So much so that the developer has put up full-sized replicas of these landmarks in a residential development in Medan, the capital of Indonesia’s North Sumatra province. 

Named appropriately “The Singapore of Medan” the housing estate even has residential clusters named after Fullerton, Clarke Quay, Raffles Place and Dempsey Hill. 

According to the property developer's website, the 211-hectare township is officially named CitraLand Gama City Medan and has facilities such as a university, hospital, club house and waterpark. 

“Through the concept of 'The Singapore of Medan', the masterplan is designed to have great balance between clean, green, and modern living,” states the website.

The developer’s efforts to make “The Singapore of Medan” as realistic as possible were not missed by amused netizens, as photos of the development resurfaced on Reddit on Thursday (June 23). 

“It's not a true replica of Singapore without the ERP gantry. I approve,” one Redditor quipped. 

“ERP gantry, the best landmark,” another netizen remarked.

Other netizens seem to find it amusing and flattering, with one commenting: “I ain't even mad. Got people admire us until want to copy our culture and landmarks.”

However, one Redditor said “we won’t reciprocate" by building a Medan in Singapore.

The housing project has apparently been well received in Indonesia, as one netizen in the Indonesia subreddit remarked that "people like this place and it's always crowded almost every week".

Following the success of the previous three clusters — Raffles Place, Dempsey Hill, and Fullerton cluster — the developer launched its fourth cluster, named Clarke Quay, last June, according to Indonesian news publication Tribun-Medan.

This cluster covers an area of ​​8.6 hectares and has a resort-style lake view.

According to the CitraLand Gama City website, a two-storey three-bedroom house in the Clarke Quay cluster, with a building area of 112 sqm, costs Rp 2.9 billion (S$272,772). 

This is not the first “mini Singapore” built in Indonesia.

“Singapore of Surabaya” , a development by the same developer, Ciputra, also features a Merlion replica and the Fountain of Wealth. The development is located in Surabaya, Indonesia’s second largest city.

Ciputra executives had looked to Singapore for inspiration in building “world-class infrastructure”, with a “Singapore attitude” which includes a policy against littering in the development, reported The New York Times.