Travel to China: Shanghai: Thames Town

"I wanted the properties to look exactly the same as those in the United Kingdom. I think English properties are very special. When we decide to learn from others, we should not make any improvements or changes." It doesn't sound like a recipe for success, even if imitation is flattery. No matter: a little England in China is what James Ho ordered, and he's the boss of Shanghai Hengde Real Estate, which called the shots. (Quotation from Reuters, 6 Nov 06)

Make default image size larger

A map of Thames Town, which is only a small part (one square kilometer with a planned population of 10,000) of the much larger Songjiang Garden City New Town. An international competition landed the planning and design of the whole shebang--garden city as well as Thames Town--on the lap of Atkins Consultancy, a major UK engineering firm. Here's what they gave Mr. Ho. The town center is the star, and in this set of pictures we'll drift west from the center past townhouses to a church (6) and freestanding villas (5).

The buildings copy British buildings so closely that there have been complaints from British pub owners. The on-site Atkins architect, the Irish but Scottish-educated Paul Rice, insists that the buildings are actually adapted from buildings at Lyme Regis, which is near--and Bath, which is very near--Atkins headquarters in Bristol.

It's hard to get lost in Thames Town, because the styles are arranged so that the town center is medieval, while the periphery is Victorian. Here, at the center, is one of the few businesses operating when the photo was taken early in 07. The town had been ceremonially opened a few months earlier, in October '06. Most of the houses were reportedly sold, but there were no or almost no occupants, perhaps because access to Thames Town was a major headache. That should change with the opening of a new rail line scheduled to get to downtown Shanghai--20 miles to the northeast--in 15 minutes. It should change, too, when the planned freeway is built from Shanghai south to Hangzhou. This caution convenience was open only on a trial basis.

Tidy Tudor.

An exercise in half-timbering.

Are the buildings truly separate structures? Maybe, but very unlikely. Might as well ask if Main Street Disneyland has separate structures, but mentioning Disney here in Thames Town is tantamount to looking for a fight. The developers insist this place is a real city.

No, no, this isn't Manchester. We're still in Thames Town, specifically the restaurant quarter called Dockside. Not bad as an imitation, is it?

Rising above the canal, a church, or at least the likeness of a church. It was conceived as a wedding chapel, but there have been press reports that it might be sanctified.

Perhaps it's a little too perfect to be real.

Could this street fool you? Too clean, perhaps? You can see the chronology laid out before you as we look back toward the center from what appears to be the beginning of Georgian England.

A comparable view. Did I mention that the developers invested $300 million of somebody's money in Thames Town?

Victorian row houses.

More upscale townhouses.

Townhouses and church.

Country inn.

Freestanding villas. These houses were priced by Shanghai Hengde from EUR490,000 and EUR 600,000 for houses between 307 and 377 square meters. Apartments are much cheaper, though still not cheap: about EUR600 per square meter.

Dusk in our fictitious England.

A guard in the Chinese equivalent of Beefeater Red.

Another guard, near the town hall. Did a first-time Chinese visitor recognize the likeness, crude as it is? Yes indeed. (Hunt a bit and you may just find the town's statues of Florence Nightingale and Shakespeare. If you're that keen on the subject, you may want to visit Nanjing's Bali and Hangzhou's Venice and Zurich. Too far? Try Shanghai's Rancho Santa Fe.)