A tourist who visited China’s “fake British town” claims the £500m project would have been a perfect replica had it included one extra feature.
Ali Korsan travelled to the Far East to explore Thames Town – named after the River Thames – which was built in 2006 in an attempt to lure people away from Shanghai, just 30km away.
Part of Songjiang New City, in the Songjiang District, the town is home to around 2,500 residents, with capacity for a further 7,500 more to move in. Thames Town’s architecture has been directly copied from British buildings including a church, a pub and a fish and chip shop.
“The Chinese have copied Britain brick-by-brick,” Ali (@alikorsan_) began in a video shared on TikTok. “They even managed to copy the double yellow lines,” he continued, as he strolled down the street.
“It does feel like you are in Britain, but something just doesn’t feel quite right,” Ali explained. “The town was built by a Chinese-British citizen and they spent half-a-billion pounds on this – a quarter of which was spent on importing its street lamps.”
Ali ventured into a cobbled street shopping area, revealing the locals seem to be “obsessed with Carnaby Street”. But opening up on the only downside of his experience, he lamented: “I don’t really know why they have this shop here when it has no British goods at all – it’s like a lost opportunity I feel.”
He humorously remarked the developers did manage to get the “murky waters spot on”, however, as he highlighted a pond in the centre of the town. “You might be interested to know a lot of Chinese people have never seen a church so everyone here is completely gobsmacked,” he said, standing in front of a replica of Christ Church, Clifton Down in Bristol.
“They have fake weddings here, which is quite cute,” he added, before moving on to a typical Thames Town street. “It does feel like you’re in Central London somewhere,” he observed, pointing out a KFC outlet.
“Surprisingly enough they are still building more houses,” Ali noted, despite the numerous empty buildings giving parts of the area a “ghost town” vibe. “A lot of the places here are named after famous streets,” he mentioned, citing Oxford Street and its Winston Churchill statue as an example.
A second statue, “immortalising Harry Potter”, has also been erected “should you forget where you are”, concluded Ali. Many Brits quickly chimed in with comments on what sets Thames Town apart from the real deal. “The bit that’s ‘slightly off’ is it’s too clean and has a survivable economy,” joked one TikTok user.
Another person concurred: “Way too clean and the roads are intact, not very accurate.” A third individual remarked: “You know it’s not the UK because everything is clean, and there are no clouds.” While a fourth recalled their own visit: “I went to Thames Town once… such a strange place and so many bridal photos! “
According to Beijing-Visitor.com, Thames Town “acknowledges five hundred years of British architectural styles including Tudor half-timbered buildings, Victorian brick and Regency stone”.
The website adds: “Thames Town was planned to provide homes for the staff of the universities at nearby Songjiang University Town – a massive educational hub with nine universities. However, many of the homes on offer were bought as second homes or as investments and not all of the housing is permanently occupied, though an epithet of ‘ghost town’ to describe Thames Town would be a bit harsh.”