THAMES TOWN I Sonjiang, Shanghai, China

On The Coracle’s visit to Thames Town it was striking that these aren’t the grand old streets of Edinburgh or even of a beautiful Cotswolds village, it feels like walking through an English market town. Down to the smallest details. Some of the buildings have been directly copied from originals found in the UK; Bristol’s Christ Church and a classic fish n chip shop from Lyme Regis in Dorset. Atkin’s, the architects, have a grand old British history themselves even if they do now work in 150 different countries. There’s a homely nostalgia here that sometimes borders on the blandly cosy, it’s not the showy theatre of a theme park re-construction. Each town is designed by an architect from the respective country, this fakery is done properly : ) Travelling out of Shanghai on metro line 9, Thames Town sits at the edge of the rapidly expanding city. The Coracle’s visit was a few years back and not many restaurants were open so it was hard to confirm whether the food was spotted dick or xiaolongbao, the amazing Shanghainese soup dumplings. It felt like a nice place to live though, it’s low rise, low density and provides a peaceful contrast to the high energy thrills of Shanghai itself. Especially if you like Tunbridge Wells. The town was partly built to provide accommodation for Songjiang university but also to attract the commuting set. Although property sold quickly, many homes went to investors or second-homers and like Canary Wharf in its early days, the town felt like a bit of a shell. High house prices and lack of permanent residents have since made it feel a little deserted. There’s also the irony that a fair amount of London property has been bought by similarly absent Chinese owners or ones that choose to send their kids to London’s South Bank University rather than Songjiang University.