7 Most Unique Communities That Exist Today

Have you ever imagined living in an underground city? How about an all-organic town designed to promote health and happiness? How about residing in an Austrian countryside…in China?

If you think these locations exist only in books or movies, you’ll be in for a surprise. These communities exist today and people are actually living in them.

Take a look at these 7 unique communities and maybe you’ll get enticed to a different type of living:

Coober Pedy – Australia

Covered in a thin layer of dust and with only a sparse population, the small town of Coober Pedy looks like an ordinary mining environment in an outback setting.

What sets this town apart from the others is the fact that at least half of the its population actually live underground. The people were forced to seek refuge from the unbearable summers and brutal winters.

Whittier – Alaska

200 people living in the same building…it’s nothing new, right? True, unless this is the entire population of a town and they are all inhabiting a single building. The structure, which has 14-storeys and once served as army barracks, also houses the church, police station, post office, health clinic, and laundromat.

Whittier is a remote town in Alaska, with an extreme winter condition which forces the people to stay indoors as much as possible. During the cold season, the children can only go to an indoor playground and they go to school using an underground passage.

Maharishi Vedic City – Iowa

Regarded as one of the healthiest towns in America, the Maharishi Vedic City or MVC was founded on the tenets of Veda, which are ancient Sanskrit texts that made up the oldest Hindu scriptures. Sanskrit is also the town’s official language.

MVC only consumes organic produce, having banned fertilizers and pesticides. The town was designed using Vedic architectural principles that promote happiness, health, and good fortune.

Hallstatt – China

It looks like a typical suburban Austrian town, with its white-trimmed gingerbread houses, home country surroundings, and European architecture. But this serene town is actually in China – Hallstatt is a replica of the village of the same name in Austria, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The town was built during China’s real estate boom and marketed towards the wealthy who wanted to escape the country’s congested cities and live European countryside-style. This Hallstatt is having trouble enticing more people to live here – the community survives because of the droves of tourists and newlyweds who wanted to be photographed here.

Giethoorn – The Netherlands

Places with canals for roads is nothing new – Venice, hello? But its version in The Netherlands is totally different from the famous Italian city.

Giethoorn is a postcard-pretty town with lush green yards and quiet boats that glide silently in the waters.

Setenil de las Bodegas – Spain

“Do you live under a rock” is just a question in jest, but not for the residents of Setenil de las Bodegas.

This town in Southern Spain was once an Arab fortress and built into cliffs that once served as protection from enemies. Here you can see homes looking like they grew from the rocks on Calle Herreria.

Tent City – New Jersey

In Ocean Grove, New Jersey exists a community living in tents close to the beach. The practice of living in tents once belonged to devout Methodists who stay in town for community meetings. Now the “tent-pitchers” are mostly regular people who just want to relax close to the water during the summer. Residents have to get into a waiting list to be allowed to live in a tent house for the entire summer.