Thames Town: The city that is called a Ghost Town

Check out this town in China that looks like England and see why it is called a Ghost Town!

Do you ever wish you can visit another country probably for vacation?

But then you check your budget and realize you can’t meet up with the financial demands of traveling out of your country.

Oops! It’s terrible.

But what if there was a way you could magically bring the place you want to see to where you are now?

Well, it’s very possible, China created a town that is an exact copy of England and it is called Thames Town!

Read on to find out what makes this town so special and discover the history of Thames town and why it is sometimes called a Ghost Town.

History of Thames Town, China

Let’s paint a scene for you.

Imagine you’re in China but you can still see a Victorian church that is an exact copy of the ones you can find in England. You look around and see houses that do not look Chinese even one bit.

Well, stop imagining, because this is the reality of people living in Thames town, China.

In Thames Town, you can experience everything that is found in England, from fashion to the lifestyle, to the houses, to the pubs, and even the stores and church.

To understand how it all started, let’s start from the very beginning. In 2001, a committee called the Shanghai planning commission began something new. The idea was to get the thousands of people off the streets and that was how the committee planned 9 new suburban communities.

A lot of money was spent to ensure that the town looked like Britain, they went as far as importing things like lampposts found in England.

Even though Thames Town was originally a part of a 2001 idea of the Shangai planning committee to transport tens of thousands and thousands from Shanghai’s town middle into 9 worldwide suburbs, it didn’t go well. The idea had very good intentions, however, it wasn’t executed properly in such a way that people would occupy the area.

Thames Town is the Chinese version of an English town built within side the Songjiang District of China, 25 miles (forty km) southwest of Shanghai. Its architecture is the traditional British cobblestone streets, Victorian terraces, and red phone cubicles.

It would interest you to know that this is not the first town that China has copied from other countries, some other copies are; sky city which is a copy of Paris, Holland town, and Venice town amongst others.

How Does Thames Town Look Like?

The Thames town is a very good replica of the British style of houses. It has cobbled streets, red telephone boxes, Victorian terraces, and so many other British features. Completed in 2006, Thames Town is an amalgamation of British tradition and records throughout one rectangular kilometer (barely much less than 1/2 of a rectangular mile). It shows off many major landmarks from Britain, but what makes it very strange is that all these landmarks are sandwiched too close to each other.

Thames town is based on a typical British market town. If you can picture the way Britain looks and the row of tutor houses with statutes of William Shakespeare and Florence Nightingale, then you can imagine how Thames town looks like. It has a very unique outlook that has made a lot of tourists to be attracted to take pictures.

It is also a popular photography spot for couples who want to make use of the grand church as a backdrop for their wedding pictures.

Many tourists say they had an amazing time exploring the British-looking streets and the town square.

The town looks so much like England and If not for the Chinese characters at the signs, you would never know that you’re in China. One of the major giveaways that it is not Britain is the bronze James Bond statue after the signal for “London Street” that begins to tip you off that this is no longer England.

There are many things to note in this strange village; the homes are nearer together, there are larger home windows, the houses stray minimally from the British prescription and the enjoyment can nevertheless be rather real. You’ll notice red telephone cubicles and real British publish containers are scattered approximately metropolis; the lamp posts have been even imported from England.

The Reason Why It Is Called Ghost Town

Even though Thames town was a project that was started initially with good plans, it is still called a ghost town.

When you hear people calling Thames town a ghost town, you might be worried or even frightened thinking there are ghosts but that is not the case at all. Thanes Town is called a ghost town because it is deserted It is a very empty place.

After the completion of the town, the houses were sold off quite quickly but not to the middle class as the committee hoped. The majority of people who bought the houses were the upper class of China who could afford the high prices and decided to purchase them as investments for the future. If you check out the beautiful architecture, you’ll admire the stores and pubs, but the bad news is they are almost empty.

Some people began to complain about the high prices of the houses and a similar English town was built in Beijing. Because of this, many people began to leave, causing the town to be abandoned. Nevertheless, it is still used mostly as a picture backdrop area and a tourist attraction.

There was even a Planner Called Tony Mackay that said the constraints of recreating a specific tradition in overseas land are much, however, he admitted that “it has this nearly dreamlike pleasant feeling of something European.”

Thames town is an amazing place. Can you imagine how good the copy is? It’s so similar that if a stranger sees it, he or she will not be able to tell the difference between England and China. Would you like to visit Thames Town and see why it fascinates a lot of people?