Thames Town () is a

new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

Songjiang District Songjiang is a suburban district (formerly a county) of Shanghai. It has a land area of and a population of 1,909,713 (2020). Owing to a long history, Songjiang is known as the cultural root of Shanghai. Songjiang Town, the urban center of the ...

, about from central

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. Completed in 2006, it is named after the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

, which flows through

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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. The architecture is themed according to British

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

styles. There are cobbled streets, Victorian terraces, corner shops and

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es. High house prices led to few permanent residents moving to the area, causing many of the shops and restaurants to close and the area to become known as a "

ghost town A ghost town, deserted city, extinct town, or abandoned city is an abandoned settlement, usually one that contains substantial visible remaining buildings and infrastructure such as roads. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economi ...

Location

Thames Town is a part of Songjiang New City, in Songjiang District. The town is from the Songjiang New City station on

Shanghai Metro Line 9 Line 9 is a southwest-northeast line of the Shanghai Metro network. The line runs from in Songjiang District to in Pudong. The line is colored light blue on system maps. History In the initial planning of Line 9, the entire line was from Fengj ...

. The G60 Shanghai–Kunming Expressway, formerly known as the Huhang Expressway, passes to its south. While Songjiang District is an ancient prefecture which predates by far the establishment of Shanghai, Songjiang New City is a new development, intended to draw population away from central Shanghai. Within this city, one of the objectives for Thames Town was to provide accommodation for the staff of the new universities in adjacent Songjiang University Town.

Development

These developments were a part of the One City, Nine Towns initiative, which was passed by the Shanghai Planning Commission in 2001. This policy lasted for the duration of the tenth five year plan (2001–2005). The "one city" of this policy was Songjiang New City, where an English theme was used for Thames Town. The "nine towns" of the policy were each sited in one of the other suburban districts of Shanghai, and each was also given their own theme. Other Western themes used to date are

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n (

Luodian Luodian County () (Bouyei language: Lachos xianq) is a county under the administration of Qiannan Buyei and Miao Autonomous Prefecture in the south of Guizhou province, China, bordering Guangxi to the south. The climate in the area is humid subt ...

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

( Pujiang),

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

( Fengcheng),

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(

Fengjing Fengjing () is a town in Jinshan District, Shanghai. An ancient water town, it also has a new town with a Canadian theme and an industrial zone. It is a centre for Jinshan peasant painting. Fengjing has an area of , and had a registered populatio ...

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( Gaoqiao) and

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(

Anting Anting () is a town in Jiading District, Shanghai, bordering Kunshan, Jiangsu to the west. It has 96,000 inhabitants and, after the July 2009 merger of Huangdu (), an area of .

). The architectural firm of

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was given responsibility for planning Songjiang New City and designing Thames Town. The main developers for the town were Shanghai Songjiang New City Construction and Development, and Shanghai Henghe Real Estate. Thames Town was completed in 2006, occupying an area of and designed for a population of 10,000. Some of the architecture has been directly copied from buildings found in England, including the church (modelled on

Christ Church, Clifton Down Christ Church () is a Church of England parish church in Clifton, Bristol, England. It has been designated as a Grade II* listed building. History The church was built in 1841 by Charles Dyer. The steeple was built in 1859 by John Norton, and ...

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

), a pub, and

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(copied from buildings in

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis ( ) is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester, Dorset, Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and ...

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

), and Chester High Cross. It cost 5 billion yuan to construct, or $700 million.

Description

The town consists mostly of low-density, single-family housing, with few commercial premises or community facilities. Although the houses sold rapidly, most purchases were by the relatively wealthy, as investments or second homes, and house prices rose to a high level. British architecture writer

Jonathan Glancey Jonathan Glancey, is an architectural critic and writer who was the architecture and design editor at ''The Guardian'', a position he held from 1997 to February 2012. He previously held the same post at ''The Independent''. He also has been in ...

described it as "a grotesque, and extremely funny parody of an olde English town seen through Chinese eyes, and built by canny British developers". The proportion of owners taking up permanent residence was low, and ''

Business Insider ''Business Insider'' (stylized in all caps: BUSINESS INSIDER; known from 2021 to 2023 as INSIDER) is a New York City–based multinational financial and business news website founded in 2007. Since 2015, a majority stake in ''Business Inside ...

'' described it as a "virtual ghost town". Nevertheless, in 2012 a similar English-style town was being planned near

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

. By 2016, the majority of stores and restaurants in Thames Town were empty. Despite its emptiness, the town has been used as a location for

wedding photography Wedding photography is a specialty in photography that is primarily focused on the photography of events and activities relating to weddings. It may include other types of portrait photography of the couple before the official wedding day, suc ...

, with the church and main square often used as a backdrop.

References

Sources

* * *

External links

* *
Pubs, privet and parody as China builds little Britain by the Yangtse
, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', 16 August 2006 *
Shanghai surprise ... a new town in ye olde English style
, ''

'', 2 June 2004 *
Ye Olde Shanghai
, ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...