Anchored by a 320-acre man-made lake, it counts singer Celine Dion among the well-heeled owners, but saw home values plunge, sales stall and foreclosures rise.

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The Shanghai Poly Theater, by Tadao Ando, is now under construction in Jiading, China, next to a man-made lake in the center of a large park.

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The key was not to try to dig a Suez-type of canal, a great sea-level trench from ocean to ocean, but to create a lock-and-lake canal, where the ships are lifted up by a series of locks to a man-made lake, and then they sail across that lake, and then they are set back down on the other side by another series of locks.

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Explore the vast area on a golf cart, hopping on and off to see abbreviated operas from the Tang Dynasty days, laser shows on the lake, elaborate man-made waterfalls, as well as murals and statues of historical figures, philosophers and poets.

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