say do you remember niihaomaa in china 04: Thames Town, an interpretation of britain in shanghai

in big cities in china, it seems it has been getting remarkably popular to plan cities that are imitating images of cities of the West. during my stay in shanghai, a chinese friend of mine took me to one of them, the Thames Town. it is one of newly developed areas of 1city9towns initiatives by shanghai's planning commission from 2001 to accommodate about 10000 people. it is named after the Thames river and is inspired by british architectures and city design.

when i got to the thames town, i was surprised to see its unique function as a town. usually cities or towns function as places to live and work, and that generate some sort of vibe and energy. this is even more applicable in the case of cities in china, that people play games, cook, meet, eat and do whatever they want. however, in the case of the thames town, there were really nobody. although all the built environment were nicely furnished, nothing lively was going on. due to its emptiness, some articles i found even described it as "ghost town."

instead, it was used as a massive studio for brides and grooms. there were tens of couples making photo shoots everywhere around the town.

when i saw them photo shooting, i came to recall that chinese couple-friends of mine told me that it was really popular to take photo shoots at this sort of studios to make pre-wedding photo albums. when i heard the story and saw their albums, i really couldnt grasp the concept at all, because i couldnt imagine there would be this massive studio-like-towns in many big cities in china, and because nothing like this is happening in japan. obviously china offered me much more than i expected. seeing this town somehow made me re-realize that cities and towns have much more potentials than just offering accommodation and jobs.

the other finding about this area that interested me was its interpretation. it looked much like a british city or at least european city. this is what many of japanese developers should learn, since many of european-inspired towns in japan cannot really offer a bit of their originals.