"Our village is called Paris, and in Paris there's the Eiffel Tower," says Nurzhan Kubatbekov, the local who gifted a replica of the famed tower to a small hamlet in northern Kyrgyzstan. But to government officials, the makeshift village does not exist -- it is just kilometre 152 of the treacherous Bishkek-Osh highway. Surging trade with Russia and China, however, means that Paris is becoming a popular stopover for the growing numbers of vehicles navigating one of the world's most mountainous countries. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES