"China's love affair with England" - Daily Telegraph on line today 14th November 2012
Please read the following fascinating article:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/9663863/Chinas-love-affair-with-England.html...."I was visiting Mr Tang, who worked in research and development at a large pharmaceutical company in Shanghai, at his weekend retreat in Thames Town. A facsimile of an English country town – all half-timbered mock-Tudor buildings, cobbled lanes and Georgian terraces – which lies at the end of the Shanghai Metro Line 9, 25 miles from the city, Thames Town is a part of Songjiang New City – a sprawling modern conurbation that includes seven university campuses and what is claimed to be the largest shopping mall in the world. [...] Thames Town was originally planned as a community of 10,000 people, providing housing for staff at the numerous universities of Songjiang New City and for Shanghai commuters, but properties were quickly snapped up by wealthy buyers as second homes or investments. Only a third of Thames Town’s residents live there permanently, Mr Tang told me. ‘Professionals. A few government officials…’ The rest, like Mr Tang himself, live in Shanghai or elsewhere, visiting only at weekends.A jovial man of 50, dressed in jeans and a combat shirt, Mr Tang told me that he had visited England on a business trip in 2001 and fallen in love with it. When the opportunity came up to buy an apartment in one of the low-rise blocks that encircle Thames Town’s centre, he jumped at it.‘I like to get away from the concrete jungle,’ he said. ‘Lots of people come here at the weekend to savour the atmosphere, so they don’t have to pay for a trip to London. For me it’s a place to relax, drink tea and have family reunions.’ "Message: perhaps we don't have to build any high-rise apartments blocks next to the river. Rich Chinese REALLY want low-rise "mock Tudor", etc....
Una Hodgkins ● 4546d0 Comments