Thames Town

Main square in Thames Town

Thames Town ( Chinese  泰 晤 士 小鎮 , Pinyin Tàiwùshì Xiǎozhèn ) is the name of a 1 km² district that opened on October 20, 2006, about 30 km from the center of Shanghai in China . It is part of the 60 km² garden city of Songjiang , built on the British model.

architecture

The architecture of Thames Town mimics that of a country town in England . The church is a replica of Christ Church (Clifton Down) near Bristol . Other buildings are copies from Lyme Regis in Dorset . This also includes Tudor-style buildings .

Like Anting, which is based on the Weimar Bauhaus tradition, Thames Town is one of nine planned cities in the One City, Nine Towns project from 2001, which are designed according to various Western models, including the Netherlands , Sweden , Spain , Italy , Canada , Germany .

use

The city is uninhabited except for a few people. The houses and land are bought, but used to a very limited extent or not at all, because the Chinese people are allegedly of the opinion that the resale value decreases when these properties are used or lived.

The place is often used as a backdrop for personal photo ops.

Thames Town developer

• Chief Developer: Shanghai Songjiang New Town Developing and Construction Co. Ltd
• Developer: Shanghai Henghe Real Estate Co. Ltd
• Architectural firm: Atkins

An almost real English market town

See also

• Jackson Hole (China)
• European street
• Ju Jun - Orange County in Beijing
• Hallstatt (China)

Web links

Commons : Thames Town  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Thames Town website
• Pubs, privet and parody as China builds little Britain by the Yangtse . In: The Guardian , August 16, 2006.
• Shanghai surprise… a new town in ye olde English style . In: The Guardian , June 2, 2004.
• Ye Olde Shanghai . In: Time , February 14, 2005.
• Black and white buildings, red phone boxes and even a village pub ... remind you of anywhere? Yep, it's China! - A series of photos from Thames Town , Daily Mail, May 6, 2013
• Photo series by David Wyatt

Individual evidence

1. ^ Shape of the City: Thames Town :: Shanghai Squared. Retrieved February 25, 2017 . 
2. ^ Ruth Morris: Why China loves to build copycat towns . In: BBC News . July 1, 2013 ( bbc.com [accessed February 22, 2017]).
3. ↑ ABC News: China's 'Fake' Cities Are Eerie Replicas of Paris, London. April 14, 2016, accessed February 7, 2017 . 

Coordinates: 31 ° 2 ′  N , 121 ° 11 ′  E