Is quaint and picturesque the same? There certainly are lots of picturesque villages in the world. Which country does one want to go to for cute villages?
And then there's Shanghai China's "One City, Nine Towns".
The One City Nine Towns concept was an economic development plan introduced by the Shanghai Planning Commission in 2001. Each town was planned to be built in the style of a different Western city, incorporating European and North American architectural styles as a method of attracting investors and residents. They were China, Germany, Ecology, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Canada, Sweden and Spain. Canada's town plan was abandoned, others are ghost towns with lots of architecture but no people anywhere.
Thames Town (U.K.) was built and is part of the Garden City. Thames Town reportedly cost £500 million and sits 19 miles outside of Shanghai.
But despite being completed in 2006, its mock-Tudor buildings, cobbled streets and English pub remain desolate and many tourists liken it to The Truman Show.
It is now used primarily by middle-class newlyweds, who choose it as the backdrop for their English-themed wedding snaps.
On entering the town you could be mistaken for thinking you had strolled into a quaint southern counties settlement. Except that there are no people in any of the pictures.
Bronze statues of James Bond and Winston Churchill are two of the tourist attractions, while hundreds of homes are designed to imitate Victorian, Georgian and Tudor architecture.
Looking for something that you'd only find in a town? Here's the tourist ride in Niagara-on-the-Lake.
