Little Britain ( in China)

Look at those white stucco Regency terraces. This must be Pimlico. Look again. Well, perhaps we are in Bristol; that's the spire of St Mary Redcliffe over there, isn't it? On the other hand, all those black-and-white Tudor shops seem to spell Chester. Right?

Wrong. This is not England, nor even a chim-chiminee Hollywood film set. Welcome to Thames Town, a grotesque, and extremely funny parody of an olde English town seen through Chinese eyes, and built by canny British developers. Twenty-five miles from Shanghai, scores of Chinese workers are putting the finishing touches on a little bit of Britain.

They're pounding cobble stones into the dirt road. They're installing the pews in a neo-Gothic church. They're wiring up the red telephone boxes. And a lone labourer dusts off a sign that reads: "Real Ales Served Here."

Part Disneyland, part period fantasy -- welcome to "Thames Town," a Chinese settlement with a very British vibe.

But this Middle England rip-off is more than a real estate gimmick. It's part of a government plan to move thousands of Chinese out of an overcrowded Shanghai and into China's newly launched suburbs.

A new rail line currently under construction will link downtown Shanghai to the commuter city of Song Jiang, home of Thames Town as well as a number of recently transplanted universities.

The one-square kilometer settlement will be completed by the end of the year, ready to house 10,000 people.
Thames Town is one of seven satellite towns nearing completion on the fringe of Shanghai built by the municipal government to re-house 500,000 people. Its six siblings have been designed in equally potty national dresses. Take your pick from architectural styles adopted from Italy, Spain, Canada, Sweden, Holland and Germany.

I hope Thamestown's website works better for you, I couldn't get any pictures to load !