THAMES TOWN

On the outskirts of Shanghai lies a town most would mistake for a London Borough

Tucked away near the last stop of Line 9, the satellite settlement of Thames Town opened in 2006 as part of Shanghai’s One City, Nine Towns program, with low-rise apartments and gated complexes designed to house 10,000 residents. Despite an intensive marketing effort (including a beauty pageant), the community failed to take off, and what’s left is a ghost town -- and an ideal place for a quiet afternoon stroll.
As its name suggests, the design of Thames Town is inspired by England, with a main square, red telephone booths, streets named High, Oxford, and Queen and, of course, its very own man-made Thames river. If you start to lose yourself in your surroundings, worry not: images of Haibao have made it out here to reassure you that you are, in fact, still in Shanghai.


 Planted all across Thames Town are statues of Brits ranging from Winston Churchill to Princess Diana, from Harry Potter to generic English-looking folk. (Yes, we did say Harry Potter.)

… to soon-to-be-married couples who didn’t feel like hopping on a plane. Who needs to leave Shanghai when we’ve got our very own Christ Church sitting on a giant, picture-perfect lawn?