At first glance, Songjiang New Town looks like many of the other neighbourhoods that have erupted on the outskirts of Shanghai over the past decade. There are long lines of cookie-cutter skyscrapers alongside a few gated compounds of plush villas. The brand-new roads are wide and not yet clogged with cars.

But one corner of the district is full of surprises. Beside one manicured lawn, there is a neo-gothic church complete with 200ft steeple. Around the corner is a pub and the Cob Gate fish and chip shop. And further down the street are red public telephone boxes.

Welcome to Thames Town, a British-style village that represents the latest in Shanghai's booming property market. This picture-postcard mix of Georgian and Victorian architecture" title="n.建筑术；建筑学">architecture, with a little mock-Tudor thrown in, is a RMB5bn (£330m) project that will eventually house about 10,000 people when complete. Designed by the British group Atkins, the carefully painted buildings, tidy cobbled pavements and sculptured street lamps with concealed wiring are a sharp contrast to the hectic intensity of most Chinese cities.

"We did not want to build something that looked the same as all the other modern buildings in Shanghai," says James Ho, a director at developer Henghe Real Estate. "Instead we wanted to build something that reflected a sense of culture, history and tradition."

According to a brochure for the project, it will be "the new gathering place for modern urban celebrities and the best choice to relax for successful and honoured persons".

Thames Town, and the broader Songjiang development in which it's located, are just small pieces in a much bigger urban planning makeover of Shanghai that officials have christened "One City, Nine Towns".

Shanghai is one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world, with a downtown that continues to fill up with immigrant workers. The government's solution is to create a ring of nine satellite towns on the city's outskirts, some of them in areas that were largely undeveloped before. Several of these new developments have showcase communities that aim to incorporatearchitectural" title="a.建筑术的；建筑学的">architectural styles from around the world.

So, in addition to Thames Town in Songjiang, which is 30km to the south-west of the city centre, there is a Scandinavian development at Luodian, 28km north of downtown, where the main square is surrounded by narrow streets of terraced houses with clean lines and tall windows, all painted in subdued pastel and grey colours. About 32km to the west is Anting, which has a German village master-planned by Albert Speer & Partners, the Frankfurt firm founded by the son of Hitler's favourite architect. It was inspired by Weimar, cradle of Bauhaus architecture" title="n.建筑术；建筑学">architecture, which has a functionality and modernity rather in tune with the surroundings of a metropolis such as Shanghai. Italian and Spanish projects are also under construction.

Many of the towns have not only designated styles but also economic activities. Songjiang, one of the original settlements of Shanghai and home to many famous artists and poets during the Song dynasty, is to be turned into a large college town. Seven universities are relocating or building campuses there. Anting is expected to be a hub for the automobile industry. Its German village is near a Volkswagen factory that churns out more than 450,000 cars a year, there is a string of car components suppliers and Shanghai's new RMB2.7bn Formula 1 racetrack is next door.

It remains early days for these projects. Henghe says a large proportion of the Thames Town units have been pre-sold but, on a recent visit, there were few people around that were not involved in construction and one of the few open shops was a Lawsons convenience store, a ubiquitous chain in China that sells chocolate soda and tofu snacks boiled in oil.

At first glance, Songjiang New Town looks like many of the other neighbourhoods that have erupted on the outskirts of Shanghai over the past decade. There are long lines of cookie-cutter skyscrapers alongside a few gated compounds of plush villas. The brand-new roads are wide and not yet clogged with cars.

But one corner of the district is full of surprises. Beside one manicured lawn, there is a neo-gothic church complete with 200ft steeple. Around the corner is a pub and the Cob Gate fish and chip shop. And further down the street are red public telephone boxes.

Welcome to Thames Town, a British-style village that represents the latest in Shanghai's booming property market. This picture-postcard mix of Georgian and Victorian architecture" title="n.建筑术；建筑学">architecture, with a little mock-Tudor thrown in, is a RMB5bn (£330m) project that will eventually house about 10,000 people when complete. Designed by the British group Atkins, the carefully painted buildings, tidy cobbled pavements and sculptured street lamps with concealed wiring are a sharp contrast to the hectic intensity of most Chinese cities.

"We did not want to build something that looked the same as all the other modern buildings in Shanghai," says James Ho, a director at developer Henghe Real Estate. "Instead we wanted to build something that reflected a sense of culture, history and tradition."

According to a brochure for the project, it will be "the new gathering place for modern urban celebrities and the best choice to relax for successful and honoured persons".

Thames Town, and the broader Songjiang development in which it's located, are just small pieces in a much bigger urban planning makeover of Shanghai that officials have christened "One City, Nine Towns".

Shanghai is one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world, with a downtown that continues to fill up with immigrant workers. The government's solution is to create a ring of nine satellite towns on the city's outskirts, some of them in areas that were largely undeveloped before. Several of these new developments have showcase communities that aim to incorporatearchitectural" title="a.建筑术的；建筑学的">architectural styles from around the world.

So, in addition to Thames Town in Songjiang, which is 30km to the south-west of the city centre, there is a Scandinavian development at Luodian, 28km north of downtown, where the main square is surrounded by narrow streets of terraced houses with clean lines and tall windows, all painted in subdued pastel and grey colours. About 32km to the west is Anting, which has a German village master-planned by Albert Speer & Partners, the Frankfurt firm founded by the son of Hitler's favourite architect. It was inspired by Weimar, cradle of Bauhaus architecture" title="n.建筑术；建筑学">architecture, which has a functionality and modernity rather in tune with the surroundings of a metropolis such as Shanghai. Italian and Spanish projects are also under construction.

Many of the towns have not only designated styles but also economic activities. Songjiang, one of the original settlements of Shanghai and home to many famous artists and poets during the Song dynasty, is to be turned into a large college town. Seven universities are relocating or building campuses there. Anting is expected to be a hub for the automobile industry. Its German village is near a Volkswagen factory that churns out more than 450,000 cars a year, there is a string of car components suppliers and Shanghai's new RMB2.7bn Formula 1 racetrack is next door.

"Many people will want to live in a place like this, away from the stress and pollution of the big city," says Wu Ting, an executive at Golden Orchid.

Sometimes, though, the messages are mixed. In his development's showroom is a large white grand piano and, on the outside wall, a sign in Chinese characters says "Scandinavian Fashion, Diamond Taste".

Buying into this vision of European chic requires a fair amount of cash, in spite of the fact that the average Shanghai salary amounts to RMB31,000 a year. A Georgian-style townhouse in Thames Town can cost more than RMB6m. In Luodian, the roomier Scandinavian villas looking on to the marina are priced even more steeply, at up to RMB8m. Wu says they are proving popular among Hong Kong Chinese.

Even with such high prices, both Henghe and Golden Orchid might struggle to make significant profits. Because of a lack of skilled workers and more stringent building standards, construction costs have been 50 per cent more than a typical project in the centre of Shanghai. Replicating foreign architectural" title="a.建筑术的；建筑学的">architectural styles turned out to be extremely difficult. Some buildings at Thames Town had to be rebuilt two and, on occasions, three times before the developer was satisfied.

"We are not British, we are Chinese, so there is a learning curve and that costs money," Ho says. He is proud of the mini-Britain his company has created but concedes: "I would not say this will definitely be a hugely economically successful project."

Given Shanghai's colonial history, there is some irony to this new wave of European-style developments. When foreign powers took control of the city in the mid-19th century, they erected buildings not unlike the ones now rising on the outskirts. The old French concession is still lined with trees and elegant apartment buildings similar to those seen in Paris while, elsewhere in the city, there are large villas styled on Tudor mansions and a downtown hotel in a structure based on a gothic German castle.

When the communists took over in 1949 - the army prepared for the assault in Luodian, where Scandinavia Town is now - they tried to erase much of the European bourgeois flavour. In a symbolic gesture, residents of the fancier buildings in the foreign concessions were evicted and replaced by peasants and soldiers. Today, by contrast, the new foreign-style enclaves rising around Shanghai are stamped with the government's seal of approval - yet another sign that different ideas animate today's Chinese Communist party.

That is not to say Thames Town and its like have not faced stiff criticism. Opponents argue, for example, that such heavy use of European pastiche is turning the metropolitan area into a series of mini-Disneylands. "In the past few years there has been a ridiculousphenomenon of developers putting up European buildings. It is ridiculous for the Chinese to use these names and styles," says Ruan Yisan, architecture" title="n.建筑术；建筑学">architecture professor at Tongji University in Shanghai and a leading member of the country's conservation lobby. "The Chinese need their own styles."

At first glance, Songjiang New Town looks like many of the other neighbourhoods that have erupted on the outskirts of Shanghai over the past decade. There are long lines of cookie-cutter skyscrapers alongside a few gated compounds of plush villas. The brand-new roads are wide and not yet clogged with cars.

But one corner of the district is full of surprises. Beside one manicured lawn, there is a neo-gothic church complete with 200ft steeple. Around the corner is a pub and the Cob Gate fish and chip shop. And further down the street are red public telephone boxes.

Welcome to Thames Town, a British-style village that represents the latest in Shanghai's booming property market. This picture-postcard mix of Georgian and Victorian architecture" title="n.建筑术；建筑学">architecture, with a little mock-Tudor thrown in, is a RMB5bn (£330m) project that will eventually house about 10,000 people when complete. Designed by the British group Atkins, the carefully painted buildings, tidy cobbled pavements and sculptured street lamps with concealed wiring are a sharp contrast to the hectic intensity of most Chinese cities.

"We did not want to build something that looked the same as all the other modern buildings in Shanghai," says James Ho, a director at developer Henghe Real Estate. "Instead we wanted to build something that reflected a sense of culture, history and tradition."

According to a brochure for the project, it will be "the new gathering place for modern urban celebrities and the best choice to relax for successful and honoured persons".

Thames Town, and the broader Songjiang development in which it's located, are just small pieces in a much bigger urban planning makeover of Shanghai that officials have christened "One City, Nine Towns".

Shanghai is one of the most densely populated urban areas in the world, with a downtown that continues to fill up with immigrant workers. The government's solution is to create a ring of nine satellite towns on the city's outskirts, some of them in areas that were largely undeveloped before. Several of these new developments have showcase communities that aim to incorporatearchitectural" title="a.建筑术的；建筑学的">architectural styles from around the world.

So, in addition to Thames Town in Songjiang, which is 30km to the south-west of the city centre, there is a Scandinavian development at Luodian, 28km north of downtown, where the main square is surrounded by narrow streets of terraced houses with clean lines and tall windows, all painted in subdued pastel and grey colours. About 32km to the west is Anting, which has a German village master-planned by Albert Speer & Partners, the Frankfurt firm founded by the son of Hitler's favourite architect. It was inspired by Weimar, cradle of Bauhaus architecture" title="n.建筑术；建筑学">architecture, which has a functionality and modernity rather in tune with the surroundings of a metropolis such as Shanghai. Italian and Spanish projects are also under construction.

Many of the towns have not only designated styles but also economic activities. Songjiang, one of the original settlements of Shanghai and home to many famous artists and poets during the Song dynasty, is to be turned into a large college town. Seven universities are relocating or building campuses there. Anting is expected to be a hub for the automobile industry. Its German village is near a Volkswagen factory that churns out more than 450,000 cars a year, there is a string of car components suppliers and Shanghai's new RMB2.7bn Formula 1 racetrack is next door.

"Many people will want to live in a place like this, away from the stress and pollution of the big city," says Wu Ting, an executive at Golden Orchid.

Sometimes, though, the messages are mixed. In his development's showroom is a large white grand piano and, on the outside wall, a sign in Chinese characters says "Scandinavian Fashion, Diamond Taste".

Buying into this vision of European chic requires a fair amount of cash, in spite of the fact that the average Shanghai salary amounts to RMB31,000 a year. A Georgian-style townhouse in Thames Town can cost more than RMB6m. In Luodian, the roomier Scandinavian villas looking on to the marina are priced even more steeply, at up to RMB8m. Wu says they are proving popular among Hong Kong Chinese.

Even with such high prices, both Henghe and Golden Orchid might struggle to make significant profits. Because of a lack of skilled workers and more stringent building standards, construction costs have been 50 per cent more than a typical project in the centre of Shanghai. Replicating foreign architectural" title="a.建筑术的；建筑学的">architectural styles turned out to be extremely difficult. Some buildings at Thames Town had to be rebuilt two and, on occasions, three times before the developer was satisfied.

"We are not British, we are Chinese, so there is a learning curve and that costs money," Ho says. He is proud of the mini-Britain his company has created but concedes: "I would not say this will definitely be a hugely economically successful project."

Given Shanghai's colonial history, there is some irony to this new wave of European-style developments. When foreign powers took control of the city in the mid-19th century, they erected buildings not unlike the ones now rising on the outskirts. The old French concession is still lined with trees and elegant apartment buildings similar to those seen in Paris while, elsewhere in the city, there are large villas styled on Tudor mansions and a downtown hotel in a structure based on a gothic German castle.

When the communists took over in 1949 - the army prepared for the assault in Luodian, where Scandinavia Town is now - they tried to erase much of the European bourgeois flavour. In a symbolic gesture, residents of the fancier buildings in the foreign concessions were evicted and replaced by peasants and soldiers. Today, by contrast, the new foreign-style enclaves rising around Shanghai are stamped with the government's seal of approval - yet another sign that different ideas animate today's Chinese Communist party.

Still, it's clear that many aspiring Chinese are attracted to the exotic neighbourhoods, regarding them as somehow more sophisticated than traditional Chinese equivalents. A young couple on the village green in Thames Town, taking photographs ahead of their wedding day, provides a case in point. "We wanted a unique backdrop for our wedding photos and this was ideal," says Zhang Ling, the bride-to-be, whose long white dress is adorned with a red-and-black tartan sash draped around the waist. "My future husband is going to wear a kilt for the service." Thames Town's Gothic church is expected to host many ceremonies. "We are building a holy wedding field," the development brochure reveals.

On the same day, a group of tourists from the southwestern province of Yunnan make an unplanned stop as they pass by. "We thought it was really pretty and asked our bus driver to stop so that we could take a look and some pictures," one explains.

Whether these developments continue to serve as curiosities for out-of-town visitors or succeed in becoming real, thriving communities remains to be seen.
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