Thames Town

On Sunday, Hannah, Jorge and I went to Thames Town which is in Songjiang Xincheng, end of line 9. It took about 45 minutes to get there and its so different compared to central Shanghai. It is much more rural and the place itself is so picturesque. We didn't have the address of the place and in the end we were directed to just follow the main road.

It was so hot (I later found out 36 degrees) and we were walking in the hot hot sun. My UV umbrella was a lifesaver. We passed many parks and saw many couples taking professional photos in beautiful colourful clothes.

We reached Thames Town which is a small community built up to look like English buildings. Even the roads are named things like "Oxford Street" and buildings "Windsor Island" etc. The guards wear uniforms like English guards found at Buckingham Palace (minus the bearskin hats).

Throughout this community you see more couples with photographers and make-up crew and crew carrying reflectors and props for the shoot. There are a few red phone boxes and in the centre of the place is a huge church. It looked like a commercial was being filmed and the outside of the church was set up as if a wedding was about to take place, including guests and professional cameras and dollys. There were some advertising banners around it too.

This place also has a museum that shows the advancement of the town and has interactive projections etc. It was so strange like walking into a movie set!

This weekend Hannah and I are off to Beijing and I'll have my first experience on a sleeper train. I'm not sure what to expect really but I hope it isn't too bad.

Today I had a better day than I'd had in a long time and felt productive writing 2 hours worth of Chinese characters in Starbucks before going to the Vietnamese restaurant for lunch and then to a 3 hour class. I think I'm slowly finding my focus again.