Check out these aerial photos of Zhejiang's ginormous Old Summer Palace recreation

An RMB3 billion 1:1 scale replica of Beijing's Old Summer Palace opened in Zhejiang Province recently amidst some controversy.

The former imperial residence, known in Chinese as the Yuanming Yuan, was put to the torch by Anglo-French forces in 1860, as they marched on the capital to bring a close to the Second Opium War. 

For this reason, detractors of the mammoth project - including managers of the palace ruins in Beijing - insist that the palace is a place of national humiliation and patriotic education, not entertainment or profit-making. In the pictures belong, you can appreciate the sheer scale of the recreation and, perhaps, why some see it as cheapening the legacy of the original.

For an in-depth look at the burning of the Old Summer palace, read China Chronicles: The Burning of the Old Summer Palace. 

[Images via Sina]