A Shijiazhuang film studio of split personalities

A replica of Egypt's Great Sphinx of Giza is also an attraction at the base. [Photo by Zhang Yu/China Daily]

After Lyu posted a picture of the replica, a friend asked, "Are you in Egypt?" to which Lyu replied, "I am actually in China."

"Technically, it's not an exact copy of the Great Sphinx because the interior follows ancient Chinese architectural styles," he said. But "what an amazing architectural work. It's so creative and interesting. How can you imagine there's an ancient Chinese imperial palace inside the body of a sphinx."

Su said the imperial palace interior is used for TV series, while the exterior is mainly for tourism purposes.

The base also has many other replicas of famous structures from China and abroad, such as a glass replica of The Louvre in Paris and buildings modeled after the Fujian Tulou, the inward-looking circular housing in Fujian province.

In recent years, replicas of famous buildings have emerged across the country either as film and TV production sets or for tourism purposes.

Fang Xiangshuo, an architect at the Suzhou Institute of Architectural Design Co, said imitating famous structures from China and around the world is not difficult in design or construction.

"It's not like creating original structures from scratch, which needs inspiration and sophisticated calculation," said Fang, who added that replicas can be built in a shorter amount of time with modern advanced technologies.

And the building materials and the workmanship for the replicas are likely to be different from the old structures, Fang said.