Shanghai developers aim to cash in on dreams of English
It is only a few years since Britain was synonymous in Chinese minds with smog, old buildings and uptight men carrying tightly furled umbrellas.
But that stiff-upper-lip image is crumbling, enough at least to convince a Chinese construction company near Shanghai that building a UK-style town might not be a bad idea.
Thames Town, the first British-themed town in China, hoped to entice wealthy Shanghaiese to depart the big smoke and settle in a bucolic UK-style suburb featuring a 300,000 sq m lake, wooden beam houses, cobbled lanes and a high street full of British shops, the developers said.
“The view of England used to be tightly furled umbrellas and top hats,” said Andrew Halper, adviser at Eversheds, a London-based law firm working on the project. “But now it has changed a lot. The UK is now regarded as one of the leading providers of education for Chinese students.”
Part of the lure of Thames Town, said an executive at Shanghai Henghe, its developer, was that several large universities had in recent years moved out of Shanghai to Songjiang, the district where the town is situated. The student population of the district, which embraces the campus of the Shanghai International Studies University, is estimated at around 100,000.
Henghe was hoping that UK establishments might be interested in investing in the two school campuses being built in the town, executives said. There is also scope for UK retailers, hoteliers and hospital managers to bid for projects in the town, which is estimated to cost Rmb3bn ($363m, �280m,￡197m), to be built over 1 sq km and be finished late next year.
The UK recently eclipsed the US as the most favoured foreign destination for Chinese students after enrolments at US universities were hit by tightened homeland security following the September 11 terror attack. There are now roughly 60,000 Chinese studying at schools and universities in the UK.
Complementing this trend, British independent schools such as Dulwich College and Harrow are setting up campuses in Chinese cities. Nottingham University is helping to create a new campus in Ningbo, a boomtown near Shanghai.
The idea for a British town grew out of the vision of Huang Ju, a vice-premier, who decreed that nine new towns should be built from scratch around Shanghai to relieve population pressure in China's largest and most cosmopolitan city.
Many, but not all, are to be made in some foreign image and each is to be around 1 sq km. The ground was already broken on a German and Italian town, while a Paris-style town was also taking shape, a Shanghai city government official said.
上海房产开发商的英伦田园梦
数年前，英国在中国人的印象里还等同于迷雾、旧楼和手持雨伞作派保守的男人。
但这一拘谨的形象正在慢慢驱散，至少它让上海附近的一家建筑公司确信，建造一座英式小镇或许并不是个坏主意。
发展商说，作为中国第一个英国主题镇，泰晤士小镇(Thames Town)希望能吸引富有的上海人离开被烟尘污染的市区，在充满英国田园风光的郊外定居，那里有着一片30万平方米的湖泊，木梁小屋，鹅软石铺就的小路以及遍布英国商店的街道。
“对英国的印象曾经是紧紧卷起的雨伞和高高的帽子，” 为这一项目工作的伦敦法律事务所Eversheds的顾问安德鲁?海普(Andrew Halper)说，“但现在这已有了很大的改变。如今对中国学生来说，英国被认为是最好的教育提供者之一。”
泰晤士小镇的开发商、上海恒和(Shanghai Henghe) 的一位高管认为，该镇的魅力还在于近几年从上海市区搬到松江的几所大学，其中包括上海外国语大学，泰晤士小镇就坐落于松江新城。这一地区的学生数量估计大约在10万左右。
恒和的高管表示，该公司期望，英国机构可能会有兴趣投资建于该镇中的两所大学。这里对英国零售商、旅店店主和医院经营者来说也有发展空间，他们可以竞标城中的项目。这一小镇的造价预计在30亿人民币，其占地超过1平方公里，估计明年底完工。
自从美国在“9?11”事件后加强了国内安全措施，赴美留学受到冲击，英国取而代之成为最受中国学生欢迎的海外留学地。目前大约有6万名中国学生在英国的各所院校学习。
考虑到这一趋势，德威学院(Dulwich College)和哈罗公学(Harrow)等英国私立学校正在某些中国城市设立分校。诺丁汉大学(Nottingham University)则在上海附近的一座新兴城市宁波设立新校园。
中国的国务院副总理黄菊曾指示说，要在上海周边要建9个新镇，从而缓解这一中国最大国际都市的人口压力。建造英国小镇正是建立在这个想法之上的。
这片土地中的许多地方都要被设计成外国形象，并且每个项目都大约占地1平方公里。一位上海的政府官员透露，这块地方已经被划分为德国镇和意大利镇，一个巴黎风格的小镇也正在成形中。
