Trifter

SONG JIANG

A MUST SEE on any tour to Shanghai is Song Jiang; a folly town of breath taking proportions.  Boasting colonial, gothic and Asian architecture, the town looks like a vision from a children’s fantasy adventure novel rather than a booming, bustling tourist hub playing host to Hollywood royalty, in one of the world’s fastest developing cities. 

 Deep Quarry Hotel.

FANTASY BUILD

With a classic Western styled castle based on Norman architectural principles rising out of the township’s centre, 600 plus years of British building design trends spiral out across nearly 50 thousand square meters of prime real estate.  And between the Queen Anne walls and Tudor cladding the streets are thronged and thriving with industrious local Chinese and wealthy expatriates, tripping out their lives in the most unlikely of aesthetic surroundings.

 Thames Town Song Jiang

But just 5 years ago it was a very different picture.  In 2004 Song Jiang was a shiny new development, deserted by all but local Chinese newlyweds, dressed up in fantastic white gowns and morning suits with a photographer following them through the bizarre but fabulous fusion of historical and whimsical architecture.

LIVING IN THE MOVIES

It was a movie set Western world, sculptured out of a rundown Eastern suburb, by the creative vision of an international team of architects.  Little attention was paid to the original spirit of the area and no quarter was given to creating an authentic feeling Chinese architectural landscape.  Instead millions were ploughed into conjuring the most fantastical scenes imaginable; with the Norman castle designed by rising British architectural star James Sylvester setting the standard high.  I boy from the Scottish highlands he had an idea or two about castles but was bowled over by the project he was working on.  I mean how often are you commissioned to create your very own castle he mused?  All that was missing in 2005 was the foot traffic.

 Song Jiang.

FAST FORWARD 5 YEARS…

Scroll forward 5 years – not much in a modern development boasting architecture spanning about 10 Centuries – and the suburb has burst into life, though at the expense of some of its original vision and coherence.  Quite apart from the new theme park – Happy Valley – and the ultra modern steel and glass Deep Quarry Song Jiang Hotel, a taste of early twentieth century Hong Kong has crept into town.

A new build – rumoured to have cost over $5 million US – film set has grown out of the fantasy; a town centre replicating 1905 Hong Kong.  And as the back drop to “Bodyguards and Assassins”, the latest epic action offering from director Teddy Chan and producer Peter Ho-Sun Chan, it’s turning some of the most illustrious heads in the industry.  Set to open at cinemas in December, even Hollywood’s Andie (Green Card) MacDowell and Danny (Slumdog) Boyle have reportedly been bowled over the level of detail and quality on offer during recent tour of the set.  Gushing, they have reportedly been wholly won over to the Chinese movie scene.

  Bodyguards and Assassins

http://news.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/upload/bodyguards.jpg

WHY THE ROMANCE…

And wandering around the fantasy fusion of so many great people’s individual dreams, it is easy to see why the unlikely hotchpotch is winning over fans.  For despite its lack of cohesion and total drift from the original brief, it holds a certain enchantment within its walls.  The passion and excitement of the creative minds who have carved out their personal visions of architectural beauty and let their wildest flights of their fancy take wing, floods through the level of precision and detail that has gone into every portion of creation.

With the joyful charm of a town as it might be envisioned by a group of enthusiastic children who have been encouraged to use their imagination to the full, it really does feel like stepping into another world in SONG JIANG.