Inside the 'perfect' £530m British town filled with Tudor buildings, red phone boxes and cobbled streets - but can you spot what's wrong?

From reddish telephone boxes to Tudor cobbled streets and accepted state pubs to Gothic churches, it looks astatine archetypal glimpse similar immoderate different quaint English village.

But there's 1 precise antithetic quirk that makes Thames Town unique… it's located much than 5,000 miles distant from the UK successful China.

The town, situated successful the Shanghai suburb of Songjiang, was completed successful 2006 with the volition of attracting residents who liked the architecture and benignant of the UK.

Two decades connected however, the £530million task has go a shade municipality with critics citing precocious location prices - and astir of its stores and restaurants are empty.

Although properties initially sold rapidly for up to £410,000, astir purchases were by the comparatively affluent arsenic investments oregon 2nd homes - and prices roseate sharply.

Thames Town is nevertheless inactive fashionable with couples who flock determination for wedding photoshoots to marque it look arsenic though they tied the knot successful Britain.

Located 19 miles distant from cardinal Shanghai, it features English-style country shops and adjacent replica branches of Costa Coffee – but fewer assemblage facilities.

The pedestrianised streets are lined with yew and level trees and oak panelling fronts the mock-Tudor, English-style boutiques – on with a food and spot shop.

The sandstone religion was modelled connected a chapel successful Bristol, the houses were built successful Georgian and Victorian-style and determination is adjacent a mock castle and plot maze.

British lensman Paul Reiffer, 39, who visited the town, said: 'The spot is precisely similar an English municipality - it's designed precise good - but it puts you successful a weird headspace.

'To a definite grade its rather mad. When I look astatine the pictures it looks identical to wherever I unrecorded successful England successful Weymouth. The weird portion is that erstwhile you spell determination radical each astir are having photoshoots and everyone is dressed up for a wedding.'

He went to a pub successful the municipality for immoderate luncheon but 'quickly realised determination was cipher moving determination and the buildings were conscionable props'.

Mr Reiffer added that helium past noticed each of the moving shops were for weddings.

He continued: 'When the municipality opened, Asian couples started coming present to get pre-wedding photographs which made it look similar they had gone to England to get married.

'As soon arsenic residents present realised that they could marque wealth from this, each different retailers vanished and present the municipality has go a hotspot for wedding photography.

'There tin beryllium up to 30 photoshoots happening astatine a time. Now the spot is simply a shade town, determination isn't a assemblage surviving present different than the store owners and radical coming for photographs.'

Mr Reiffer said that helium expected the country becomes 'dead' erstwhile the photographers person finished their enactment for the day, successful an country that was initially designed for a colonisation of 10,000.

He continued: 'It's rather bittersweet really, the spot was made to go a thriving municipality wherever radical were going to unrecorded and present it's similar a movie set.

'Being successful Asia and walking astir present is similar watching The Truman Show, the aforesaid happening happens present each time from greeting to nighttime implicit and implicit again.

'It makes you wonderment however astonishing the spot could person been if it had worked retired with the archetypal plan.

'The spot is truly absorbing and precise good made, but nary of it is really working. The pubs don't open, and the religion does not person a Sunday service.'

'If you were blindfolded and dropped here, you would person nary thought you were successful Shanghai. The quality is that each you would spot erstwhile visiting is photograph shoots, each happening astatine the aforesaid time.' 

After Thames Town was archetypal built, ambitious aboriginal plans included gathering 9 universities, respective hi-tech plants and 1 of the world's biggest buying centres.

There were besides hopes that large UK supermarkets specified arsenic Tesco and Sainsbury's and adjacent retailers including Next would look astatine opening stores determination for an adjacent much authentic feel.

Homes were initially offered with prices from £330,000 to £410,000 for a three-bedroom villa, which is much costly than the mean successful Shanghai. It was £45,000 for a one-bedroom apartment.

Thames Town was planned by UK designer Tony Mackay who was hired successful 2001, but helium told BBC News successful 2013 that helium was not blessed with his work, saying: 'It doesn't look rather right.'

His volition had been to exemplary the determination connected a Cotswold village, but helium felt it looked much similar a movie acceptable due to the fact that of the six-storey Tudor buildings and the incorrect stones and model proportions successful the church.

At the clip of its motorboat successful 2006, architecture professional Jonathan Watts said successful The Guardian: 'Look astatine those achromatic stucco Regency terraces. This indispensable beryllium Pimlico. Look again.

'Well, possibly we are successful Bristol; that's the spire of St Mary Redcliffe implicit there, isn't it? On the different hand, each those black-and-white Tudor shops look to spell Chester. Right?

'Wrong. This is not England, nor adjacent a chim-chiminee Hollywood movie set. Welcome to Thames Town, a grotesque, and highly comic parody of an olde English municipality seen done Chinese eyes, and built by canny British developers.'

But James Ho, the caput of 1 of the companies down the development, Shanghai Hengde Real Estate, said aft it was built: 'I wanted the properties to look precisely the aforesaid arsenic those successful the United Kingdom.

'I deliberation English properties are precise special. When we determine to larn from others, we should not marque immoderate improvements oregon changes.'

The municipality was constructed arsenic portion of a programme called 'One City, Nine Towns' which saw locations built connected Shanghai's outskirts successful antithetic planetary styles.

This was owed to projections astatine the clip that 400million radical would determination from the agrarian areas of China to the cities successful the pursuing 15 years, forcing the authorities to embark connected a multibillion-pound programme of wide gathering to make 3,000 caller towns and cities.

Other areas of China person been given their ain versions of UK landmarks specified arsenic Stonehenge and Tower Bridge - arsenic good arsenic the Sphinx of Cairo, the Colosseum of Rome and the Eiffel Tower of Paris.