Stunning Photos From China's Creepiest Modern Ghost Town

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Welcome to the most ironically-named city in China. A would-be utopia, rapidly constructed for a population of one million (that failed to materialize), the futuristic city of Ordos, which takes its name from ordo, the Mongolian word for crowd and the root for the English word 'horde', has been almost totally abandoned. The stunning landscape left behind in the following images is both disturbing and confirming of China's epic mal-investment boom...

Via Artnet News

The images, taken by Shanghai-based photographer Raphael Olivier and shared at Creative Boom, depict a strange modern ghost town. The city, in the Inner Mongolia region, was constructed under the old "if you build it, they will come" motto, but the teeming masses have never made their way to Ordos.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

The city includes dormant schools, sports complexes, hospitals, convention centers, and other major facilities, all completed between 2005 and 2010. The Chinese building boom has seen many new cities become overnight metropolises, but Ordos City failed to replicate that success.

"The city is now a surreal landscape of empty streets, decaying monuments, abandoned buildings and half-finished housing projects," writes Olivier. "It is more than anywhere the symbol of the Chinese Dream with all its challenges and contradictions, an Orwellian vision of a bright future caught up by a less flamboyant reality."

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the Ordos Museum.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the Ordos Museum.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

The city's most fantastical structures include the Ordos Museum, designed by China's MAD Archictects, which resembles a tiled metal blob overlooking the Gobi Desert.

Like the rest of the city, the museum was apparently built without much forethought: "As for the gallery spaces, we didn't know what kind of exhibitions they would hold, so they are designed to be flexible," the architecture firm told ArchDaily.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

"This plaza is now a favorite amongst the locals who gather their families and friends to explore, play or lounge in the pleasant landscape," wrote de zeen magazine upon Ordos's completion in 2011, in a rather premature judgment.

Based on reports from intrepid photojournalists and travelers, including the Bohemian Blog, the city's residents (reportedly just 20,000 souls, or two percent of the total capacity) largely consist of construction crews, maintenance workers, and random employees.

See more of Olivier's photos of Ordos below:

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the Ordos mosque.<br> Photo: Raphael Olivier.

Raphael Olivier, Ordos, Inner Mongolia, the Ordos mosque.
Photo: Raphael Olivier.

 

We have nothing to add... except one chart...

 

 

This is what happens when the central planners get drunk on their own hopium-laced Kool-Aid.

 

Images: Artnet News

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Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:02 | 7019493 o r c k
o r c k's picture

No, they light up around the neck, manely.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 21:20 | 7020080 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Denver has loads of Somalis working at the airport and supposedly under the airport is the huge underground city plus an underground fast rail system connecting the country aka Deep State.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:42 | 7019439 The Dogs of Moar
The Dogs of Moar's picture

I find the rust belt to be much more cosy and inviting.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:45 | 7019446 DelusionalGrandeur
DelusionalGrandeur's picture

Well, now we know where all the middle eastern refugees can go.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:51 | 7019462 xrxs
xrxs's picture

Surreal.  Wonder when they expect those loans to start performing.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:56 | 7019477 blindman
blindman's picture

hilarious.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:52 | 7019465 Graph
Graph's picture

Does the broken window make a sound if nobody is there?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:05 | 7019504 o r c k
o r c k's picture

Don't know, but picking up the pieces would be a pane.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 18:54 | 7019472 blindman
blindman's picture

i seriously would like to know exactly which drugs
are responsible for this particular psychosis.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 00:14 | 7020586 techpriest
techpriest's picture

Monetary Heroin. The street term is ZIRP, with the more powerful version called NIRP.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:04 | 7019501 Pabloallen
Pabloallen's picture

More like housing for when the mainland floods.........  

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:05 | 7019506 mccvilb
mccvilb's picture

I'm sensing a swaps opportunity. Metropolis flipping anyone?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:05 | 7019507 abyssinian
abyssinian's picture

Looks pretty nice!  in couple years, it will be over populated there. you just watch! The chinese rather borrow, spend all the fake US dollars first, even when no one is living in them now.  It's better to hold these ghost cities than fake US dollars. 

 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:06 | 7019511 1stepcloser
1stepcloser's picture

Krugman creams himself everytime he sees photos of China Ghost cities

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:10 | 7019522 Will To Live
Will To Live's picture

The Chinese are hosed.  Riots in 3..2...1...

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:10 | 7019526 Lumberjack
Lumberjack's picture

With all those empty cities, why don't they take some refugees?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:16 | 7019530 Lumberjack
Lumberjack's picture

can you imagine the political clout they would get for doing that. Then repatriating those who wish back tobyheir native homeland when things stabilize

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 20:59 | 7019579 Lumberjack
Lumberjack's picture

Nobel peace prize....sorry about above mis-spelling. (Wish to go back to their native homelands).

Good for business, furthering peace and great economically.

Some of these cities resemble various regions of the world.

http://weburbanist.com/2013/09/07/paris-of-the-east-abandoned-replica-gh...

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 21:04 | 7020017 uhland62
uhland62's picture

Why should they fund a refugee intake for the wars in the ME which the Chinese have not started? They might also learn from the German experience and apply quality control to who they take in - and that takes time and money, too. 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:12 | 7019531 silverer
silverer's picture

Too bad.  They should have turned these guys loose in Detroit.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:18 | 7019552 EndOfDayExit
EndOfDayExit's picture

I just don't understand... Who owns all these? Must be Chinese gov, right? Nobody else could afford to lose / waste this much money... So.. if gov owns it, are these for sale or what? My understanding is that this is not for sale, as there are not likely to be that many buyers... So what was the intention then? To give it all away to people? Something else? I mean seriously... what the hell is this? Just to keep people occupied while building it all and to pay them with printed money?

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 21:02 | 7020009 uhland62
uhland62's picture

From what I have read, and it is difficult to see what's what in China, people buy these unfinished to park their money because bank accounts are inappropriate. Many of them are not finished either. Saving money for your old age or healthcare is very important in China and the savings quota has been seaid to be 50%. Things are different there. It has also been said that building an underground train system in a half-finished city will attract people quickly.
But Ordos is a very odd place to build a city unless there are resources in tha area that we do not know of. 

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 00:22 | 7020605 techpriest
techpriest's picture

1) National Government gives funds/guarantees loans for a certain sector of the economy.

2) The right kind of sociopath (I knew a couple, glad I chose not to do business with him) bamboozles the city government into giving him a $20 million no-questions-asked loan.

3) Most of the money is 'lost' in one form or another while substandard buildings are built, while selling the new middle class + Party members on parking their cash in the new properties. A little is used to service the loans so the ponzi keeps going, but again the goal is to keep sucking down as much cash into your pockets as possible.

4) My former colleague and absolute sociopath explains the last stage best: "Who gives a damn what your reputation is at this point? You're a millionaire!" Hopefully he doesn't rip off the wrong people because he will get a bullet in the head.

Thinking about it, that dude was so blindly greedy I don't know if he's smart enough to cover up what he's doing. I wonder if I'll get the news when the Ponzi he went over there to start blows up on him.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 01:11 | 7020705 nidaar
nidaar's picture

Prolly he'll be in Vancouver by then...

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:22 | 7019566 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

I see not a single "For Sale" sign, so all must be well.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:23 | 7019568 didthatreallyhappen
didthatreallyhappen's picture

fuck shit bitch ass dick

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:25 | 7019576 besnook
besnook's picture

i like that the chinese are more vagina oriented than the western big dick architecture.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 01:36 | 7020738 PT
PT's picture

Are you new here?

http://kotaku.com/chinese-building-looks-like-a-golden-penis-1444725380

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_yixwUZ0-8

Oh, hang on.  That was only one example.  Maybe you still win.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 02:46 | 7020829 PT
PT's picture

... and how could I forget this picture of the same building?

http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1116177/thumbs/o-CHINA-PEOPLES-DAILY-PENIS-570...

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:29 | 7019599 22winmag
22winmag's picture

Definitely creepy coming from a nation with hundreds of millions of souls who shit in the river and lack electricity.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 20:49 | 7019949 Caleb Abell
Caleb Abell's picture

I know what you mean.  I've been to West Virginia too.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 22:44 | 7020350 DirkDiggler11
DirkDiggler11's picture

I would take any place in West Virginia over Detroit, Chicago, NY, Philly, or Baltimore any day of the fucking week.

Squeal like a pig Caleb, you sure have a pretty mouth !!!

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:39 | 7019645 Low IQ fan of VVP
Low IQ fan of VVP's picture

Look...It's like a city built just for those refugees as they are even expecting them refugees to arrive by having a mosque built there in that last pic! But where's the Buddhist temple? It's like they're learning/copying from us so they can further diminish/alienate the Mongol presence there the easy way all the while appearing humanitarian. Gotta keep up that benevolent grandpa/uncle image Xi is trying to cultivate for himself. Can't be like Japan that adamantly refuse any "immigrant", right? How are those guys going to be in a couple of decades if they're like that? Can't just sit and wait...might as well do the opposite of what they're doing and revive that Sino-Japanese rivalry them Chinese try "so hard" to suppress, right? 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 21:22 | 7019646 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

These are old photos. Nobody fact checks the guys who write these China bashing articles. Ordos is now 30% full, with about 150,000 residents. China is in the early years of a plan to move 300 million rural citizens to the cities. They have to build the homes first. New homes are sold as empty concrete shells. It takes another 20% to finish them. These homes can sit for decades without decaying. Also, there is no property tax, so the cost of sitting an real estate is very low.

http://m.chinadaily.com.cn/en/2015-07/13/content_21255634.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/ordos-a-ghost-town-that...

http://www.vagabondjourney.com/5-chinese-ghost-cities-came-alive

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/04/china-ordos-ghost-city-life_n_7...

This article is a good example of tabloid journalism.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 01:55 | 7020770 PT
PT's picture

Thanks roddy.

Does this mean that 90% of my own comments are rubbish and should be ignored?  Damn!

Seriously, thanks for showing us the other side.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 19:40 | 7019647 Racer
Racer's picture

No pollution, blue skies, no traffic jams, no people, no rubbish, what a great place to live 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 20:05 | 7019781 davelis
davelis's picture

We found a place for a  million Syrian refugees.  Forget Germany. 

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 20:56 | 7019975 uhland62
uhland62's picture

The Chinese might apply quality control, so don't bet on it. Germans are naive, I know that because I was one. A person is a person for them but now it's lesson time.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 20:24 | 7019857 luna_man
luna_man's picture

 

 

The "Great American Dream" imitation...But in China.

 

I bet they wish they could get their money back and purchase more precious

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 20:58 | 7019989 Able Ape
Able Ape's picture

Any city needs FARMERS....if they're around, anything is possible...

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 21:16 | 7020050 Lumberjack
Lumberjack's picture

Most arable land is now a golf course or housing develoments in the us and other first world countries. Farmers are essential to the prosperity and health of a nation.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 21:28 | 7020111 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

China has too many farmers, hacking away at postage stamp size farms with hand tools using Bronze Age farming methods. At best they have a rototoller. A large percentage of them are subsistence farmers, producing only enough for themselves and none to send to the cities. The country needs to send 90% of them to the cities to work in manufacturing. The hedge rows should be removed and plowed. One farmer with a tractor could farm the large farm by himself. In my travels to South Korea, I noticed this is the case. One man using modern equipment and methods raisews vast amounts of food to send to the cities. China should have Korean farmers teach their own people.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 23:44 | 7020508 Joe A
Joe A's picture

And use Glyphosate so they can gender bender the eaters ;-)

Well, that is what happened in Europe and the US: small family farms disappeared and made space for monoculture mega farms. Not necessarily good for the landscape and soil fertility. Nor for countryside living. Plenty of soil erosion going on leading to loss of nutrients. Ever increasing amounts of fetilizers and pesticides are needed. Cutting the hedgerows (and replacing them with barbed wire, a wonderful civil use of a military invention) and plowing them has led to disappearance of the landscape and habitat for biodiversity.

I do not dispute the use of modern equipment for farming. Farming is a hard job and why not make it easier for farmers to produce more? But let's not destroy our farmlands in order to produce more produce. Once soil fertility is lost it is very hard to replace it. And the world has lost 30% of its arable lands due to soil erosion.

Farming in many countries is a big employer. Sending farmers to cities to produce more stuff the world does not need is not really an option anymore. China has done this in the past in order to grow economically. They also send the peasants to the cities to better control them cause if there is one thing that China fears it is the masses rising up and marching to Bejing. That is why China has these big building projects, just to keep people working and keep industry growing but the financing has to come from somewhere and China's growth is faltering.

China and the world does not need industrial farming. They need small farming communities that unite in cooperatives (not in the communist sense) where the share is based on input of participation.

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 03:32 | 7020861 roddy6667
roddy6667's picture

Nobody is forcing the farmers to the cities. If you ever knew any you would know. They would like to live in a house that has an indoor toilet instead of a stone outhouse. They would like to have hot and cold running water. They would like to have a modern stove instead of cooking with bundles of straw that fill the house with choking smoke. They would like to have the nicities of civilization and work in a factory indoors, instead of 80 hours a week out in the weather. Farming in China makes for a short lifespan. The residents of the big cities live longer than Americans.

Already 200 million are in the cities building the infrastructure. They live in barracks type temporary housing and send money back home. They would love to have a permanent job and home in the city and have their families with them. Americans with some idyllic notion of what farming is like disagree.

I travel around China. Because I grew up on a farm, I love to visit the small villages. Most of the time I have to shake my head when I see their farming techniques. I go in their homes and eat with their families. Many of the children have never seen a white person except on TV.

When the people are settled in the cities and own homes, China is hoping for a mostly domestic market, instead of the exporting market. They will be providing goods and services to themselves and other Chinese, so they won't be making unneeded items. It's a case of which comes first.

China has dragged a billion people from an starving agrarian society to the giant it is now. I think they can succeed at this next step.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 22:01 | 7020211 Cabreado
Cabreado's picture

There is little left to do but recognize like behavior of false leaders, and then to protect Principles -- as if, go figure, that's how We started in the first place.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 22:33 | 7020319 PennilessPauper
PennilessPauper's picture

So they wasted a bunch of resources?  Sounds like USA

Sat, 01/09/2016 - 07:15 | 7021029 4freedom78
4freedom78's picture

USA wasted a bunch of bombs.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 23:13 | 7020425 Secret Weapon
Secret Weapon's picture

Big deal.  We have Solyndra.

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 23:51 | 7020451 SweetDoug
SweetDoug's picture





Cities, like living organisms, must form and grow with reason, purpose, organically, with the desire manifested through these essences, through capitalism as it seeks the most efficient means of deploying resources, as otherwise these cities are just lifeless blobs, devoid of of any meaning or logic.

These structures, overbuilt, gaudy, mausoleums, are simply there, and will serve as a reminder from the Gods of the Copybook Headings, to the folly of those who think they are able to plan and control man.

They will be no better than ugliness that Stalin and the other despots built, as ‘the future’.

•?•
V-V

Fri, 01/08/2016 - 23:32 | 7020480 nc551
nc551's picture

What about this theory... China has no shame in copying what works around the world, yet at the same time certain aspects of their culture/government are completely controlled nearly the opposite of the rest of the world...  so you get fake fundamentals to make them feel healthier than they are...  and they look abroad and see the investment strategies of healthier growing economies and duplicate them, like realestate investments.  You end up with the built city, but no true economic support for it...   is that feasible? obvious? silly?

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