What about Thames Town? What kind of place is that? What kind?

When it comes to Thames Town, people may first think of the charming British style. However, I didn't have a chance to experience the real British style. The "Thames Town" I am talking about is just a residential area in Songjiang, a new urban area in Shanghai, with a foreign name. When it comes to Shanghai, people may first think of the concrete jungle with high-rise buildings and the endless sea of people.

For me, it is entirely accidental to know and really come to the magical trip to "Thames Town". Songjiang District of Shanghai is a place where the new campus of Shanghai University is concentrated, so there is a place called University Town. My good friend teaches in the university town and invited me to visit. Songjiang is about 70 kilometers from Shanghai. Driven by the University Town, Songjiang quickly became the most dynamic new city in Shanghai, similar to Changqing District in Jinan.

Songjiang is an ancient city with a history of thousands of years. Shanghainese call it "Songjiang first, then Shanghai". Walking on the streets of Songjiang Old Town, the first feeling is the precipitation and stagnation of history, which basically maintains the historical features of a small county in the south of the Yangtze River. You can't feel that you are walking on the ground of the ever-changing international metropolis Shanghai. However, once you enter a university town or a new city, you will immediately feel the impact of internationalization.

The architectural style design of the new campuses of universities in the university city has basically become a testing ground for designers at home and abroad, which is varied, weird and elegant, exquisite and majestic, and has also infected the epidemic situation of newly-built campuses in China in recent years. However, compared with other schools in less developed provinces than Shanghai, the overall atmosphere is elegant and meticulous.

The name "Thames Town" has become the most frequent landmark name of Songjiang New Town. Road signs, road signs and taxi drivers' words are full of the name of this British symbol with irregular attributes. Taking Thames Town as a reference, you can find any new address in the new town. Officials call it the "finishing touch" of Shanghai New Town. At first, I thought that the university town belonged to a town and renamed it "Time". I walked around the city for a while and thought it was a comprehensive amusement enterprise, taking foreign names to attract business. Finally, my friend took me in for a tour, and I found out the attributes of "Thames Town", which is basically similar to the feeling of "Sunshine and Shun City" in Jinan.

On that day, there was rain and fog in the sky in Shanghai. We first had dinner at a hot pot restaurant called Dongpo Sheep in Songjiang Old Town. It was past nine o'clock after dinner, and we went to "Thames Town" by bus. My friends and I took our daughter. Two adults are "best friends" and two daughters are "hardcore" friends. The Thames town in the drizzle accepted us like a hazy veil.

At present, Thames Town has basically reached a complete scale, and some detailed renovation work is being completed. Therefore, only workers engaged in decoration and sanitation often live and work in the whole region. What we see and feel is probably the wisdom of the construction party-at night, in the rain and fog, the Thames town that has not been completed and delivered has completely entered the state of daily operation. The street lights are on all night, the traffic lights are flashing regularly, and the guards and security guards at the gate and the courtyards of various communities are in their respective posts, doing their jobs, which is not like an empty city at all.

It is precisely because the Thames town is still an empty city at once that the night tour of the four of us has become a "magic tour".

According to reports, Thames Town is designed by internationally renowned designers, which combines the architectural concepts of Britain and the East. There are natural lakes, rivers, hills and even mysterious English castles in this area. Commercial areas and residential areas are isolated from each other and integrated. The villas on Windsor Peninsula, high-grade residential areas built by the lake, are self-contained, and the business district is mixed with high-grade conjoined villas. According to the advantages of the new town, the business focuses on wedding photography, bars and so on. And the creation and management of modern art, aiming at attracting international modern art talents.

Walking through the business district, all four of us were amazed by the fresh visual impact. At eleven o'clock in the evening, there were only four of us in the town, and all kinds of naughty sculptures of bears kept making faces with us. When you see a door, you can push it in; I'm thirsty but I can't find a stall selling water; The children translated the unfamiliar name of the shop with their only English level; All kinds of novel buildings are commendable; I don't know the purpose of this terrible castle ... We make a scene and openly express all kinds of outrageous feelings, so we have a feeling of "magic".

Isn't it amazing? In Shanghai, an international metropolis famous for its prosperity, our mother and daughter broke into a deserted city. Every house in the uninhabited city is different, every seemingly impassable road can be reached, every seemingly unopened door can be easily pushed open, every river is flashing with lights, and every street is ethereal and quiet. It should have been a bustling area with many people!

I think of a famous architect who said something to the effect that all human cultures, such as philosophy, religion, literature, music and art, are for one goal-architecture. Further understanding, architecture can integrate human culture, and "living poetically" is the general goal of human life.