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In one Chinese village, 'Real Ales Served Here'By Kristie LuStout Editor's note: CNN International anchor and correspondent Kristie LuStout begins her "Shanghai Diary" as part of CNN International's special "Eye on China" programming.  CNN anchor and correspondent Kristie LuStout reports from the Shanghai area. SPECIAL REPORTSHANGHAI, China (CNN) -- Twenty-five miles from Shanghai, scores of Chinese workers are putting the finishing touches on a little bit of Britain. They're pounding cobble stones into the dirt road. They're installing the pews in a neo-Gothic church. And a lone laborer dusts off a sign that reads: "Real Ales Served Here." Part Disneyland, part period fantasy -- welcome to "Thames Town," a Chinese settlement with a very British vibe. (Just try to ignore the bamboo scaffolding.) I recently toured the development with Paul Rice, associate director of the UK-based engineering consultancy Atkins and the brains behind the project. "Thames Town is a real settlement," he tells me. "It's a settlement of houses, apartments, but also schools, shops, hospitals and bars. It's a real town." If you're an Anglophile in China with a penchant for kitsch real estate, this town may be your cup of tea. It has Georgian-style terraces, a pub, its own covered market, even a faux Victorian waterfront. Paul tells me his creation is close to the real thing, pointing out a mock-Tudor storefront to illustrate his point. "This building is based on some of the buildings from the west of England," he says. "You can see the timber, the clay tiles on the roofs. Although we're building in China in the 21st century, as far as possible we're trying to use the correct materials." But this Middle England rip-off is more than a real estate gimmick. It's part of a government plan to move thousands of Chinese out of an overcrowded Shanghai and into China's newly launched suburbs. A new rail line currently under construction will link downtown Shanghai to the commuter city of Song Jiang, home of Thames Town as well as a number of recently transplanted universities. The one-square kilometer settlement will be completed by the end of the year, ready to house 10,000 people. But will the Chinese make the move? "I think Shanghai is the city in China most open to Western developments," Paul says. "And it's part of Shanghai's history. It had the history of the colonial settlements -- the French, English, German settlements. So the idea of an English town perhaps picks up on that." So colonialism returns to Shanghai -- as an official scheme to move out the masses. 
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