Ordos: The Largest Ghost Town in the World

[Conley]

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/59116000/jpg/_59116399_newordosemptyapartmentblocks_624.jpg

A huge statue of the mighty warrior Genghis Khan presides over Genghis Khan Plaza in Ordos New Town. The square is vast, fading into the snowy mist on a recent Sunday morning.

Genghis Khan Plaza is flanked by huge and imposing buildings.

Two giant horses from the steppes rise on their hind legs in the centre of the Plaza, statues which dwarf the great Khan himself.

Only one element is missing from this vast ensemble - people.

There are only two or three of us in this immense townscape. Because this is Ordos, a place that has been called the largest ghost town in China.

Most of the new town buildings are empty or unfinished. The rampant apartment blocks are full of unsold flats.

It is a spectacular example of a new Chinese phenomenon, in many cities - unsold flats, unlet shops, empty office blocks”

If you want to find a place where China's huge housing bubble has already burst, then Ordos is the place to come.

The story started about 20 years ago, with the beginning of a great Mongolian coal rush.

Private mining companies poured into the green Inner Mongolian steppe lands, pock-marking the landscape with enormous opencast holes in the ground, or tunnelling underground.

Local farmers sold their land to the miners, and became instantly rich. Jobs burgeoned. Ceaseless coal truck convoys tore up the roads.

And the old city of Ordos flourished as the money flowed in.

The municipality decided to think big, too.

It laid out plans for a huge new town for hundreds of thousands of residents, with Genghis Khan Plaza at the centre of it.

And it is merely the most spectacular example of a new Chinese phenomenon, in many cities - unsold flats, unlet shops, empty office blocks.

It looks to outsiders as though the great Chinese building boom is over, the real estate extravaganza that shook the world.

Western financial experts who fear a bursting of the Chinese real estate bubble point out that the Chinese economy is more dependent on house building than the United States economy was, before the sub-prime lending bubble burst in 2007.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17390729

I think China is in for some serious trouble, especially as oil prices continue to rise.

[MMC]

I don't think China provides Natural gas like we do but to Urban areas. We have some places like that here in the US to. Plus certain sides to the City.

[RollingWave]

The inner Mongolian region have boomed mightly from natural resources but don't have much other basic infrasturcture, that combined with the rather limited ways Chinese can invest their money is a major reason why towns like these pop up, espiecally in resource economy driven areas. Those places usually aren't very populated to begin with.

Think of this as the Nigeria of China, a region with huge natural resource but not much else.

[Mister D]

That's eerie.

[MMC]

Sounds like they need some refugees that will help add to that global economy. I hears The Sunni of Syria might be needing a place to stay. Also they have no problem moving right on it, then want to take over. I am sure China can control that Shiznit. :tongue: :rollseyes:

[RollingWave]

Sounds like they need some refugees that will help add to that global economy. I hears The Sunni of Syria might be needing a place to stay. Also they have no problem moving right on it, then want to take over. I am sure China can control that Shiznit. :tongue: :rollseyes: That might actually be more realistic than you think :grin: China have been moving it's population into less populated (read: minority dominated) regions for the last few decades as a means to stabilize their hold on those region, so the reverse could also work. though Inner mongolia is fairly well under control and hasn't been nearly as problematic as Xinjian and Tibet. Last year there were some tension though, but not quite the same as what have been seen in those other areas.

It should be noted of the irony that there are more Mongolian speakers in China than in Mongolia, and that in China they actually preserved the old Mongolian script , where as in Mongolia they use a Russian influenced one.

Still, Muslims are actually threated pretty well in China, relative to other Chinese anyway. Chinese culture in general is not hugely based on any one particular religion, which helps.

But the general problem in Ordos remains the same, until the recent mining booms the place's basically a land o shepards, it's a fairly dry place where even the basic need of water is not always assured, it's not hard to see why building a town next to the Gobi desert isn't going to go down well

[MMC]

That might actually be more realistic than you think :grin: China have been moving it's population into less populated (read: minority dominated) regions for the last few decades as a means to stabilize their hold on those region, so the reverse could also work. though Inner mongolia is fairly well under control and hasn't been nearly as problematic as Xinjian and Tibet. Last year there were some tension though, but not quite the same as what have been seen in those other areas.

It should be noted of the irony that there are more Mongolian speakers in China than in Mongolia, and that in China they actually preserved the old Mongolian script , where as in Mongolia they use a Russian influenced one.

Still, Muslims are actually threated pretty well in China, relative to other Chinese anyway. Chinese culture in general is not hugely based on any one particular religion, which helps.

But the general problem in Ordos remains the same, until the recent mining booms the place's basically a land o shepards, it's a fairly dry place where even the basic need of water is not always assured, it's not hard to see why building a town next to the Gobi desert isn't going to go down well

Well not at least not in the way they were looking at it. As truly there should be something next to the Gobi right before one enters there. Or even exits out of it. Course water being key.

China has many things that it should be admired for. Sometimes they really tick me off with this Communistic Crap. Some of this modern day geo-political bullshit. It's like cmon China. You are suppose to be Leading the world in the ways of being civilized. Shady politicians, shady buisness dealings, shady ways to conduct buisness. When was this the way of the Chinese?

Did you know that China has more Women in their Army than the Entire Population of the US?

[RollingWave]

China has many things that it should be admired for. Sometimes they really tick me off with this Communistic Crap. Some of this modern day geo-political bullshit. It's like cmon China. You are suppose to be Leading the world in the ways of being civilized. Shady politicians, shady buisness dealings, shady ways to conduct buisness. When was this the way of the Chinese?

Unfortunately this may be more Chinese than you'd think, though the CCP's doing it in a grander scale even by that standard. Also it is unfortunately true that fast developing country = hot bed for corruption, but really if there is one thing the CCP needs to do, and just one, it would be to reform it's judisiary system so that there's actually a solid base to built a rule of law.


Did you know that China has more Women in their Army than the Entire Population of the US?

Though it should be noted that "military personal" usually plays a wider role in the PRC.