> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://hyperallergic.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # A Portrait of a Chinese Ghost Town on the Verge of New Life - URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-portrait-of-a-chinese-ghost-town-on-the-verge-of-new-life/ - Published: 2016-01-20T01:52:06.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-24T15:46:44.000Z - Description: The district of Kangbashi in Inner Mongolia, China, is famous for its emptiness. - Author: Claire Voon - Tags: Art, Ai Weiwei, Photo Essays, Photography, ruin porn, Urban Planning, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:17 (2016, 2017, part 1) ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6916](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6916.jpg) A mosque in Kangbashi (all photos courtesy Raphael Olivier) The district of Kangbashi in Inner Mongolia, China, is famous for its emptiness. Widely [labelled](https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8&ref=hyperallergic.com#q=kangbashi&pws=0) a ghost town, it stands as a cautionary tale of over-investment, home to grand feats of architecture and real estate that rose out of eagerness and ambition, but never received the human population of which developers dreamed. Instead, it has attracted members of the media and those curious to document its surreal streetscapes. Photographer [Raphael Olivier](http://www.raphaelolivier.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com) journeyed there in October and November of last year, and over the course of five days captured the lonely silhouettes of massive, futuristic buildings with barely any people around them. ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5505](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5505.jpg) Giant horse statues rise in the center of a plaza (click to enlarge) His images show gleaming blocks of office buildings rising above a plaza that has no foot traffic, residential towers next to streets void of vehicles, and western-style suburban homes all in a line. No visitors frequent the various cultural centers, from the all-white, geometric mosque to the amorphous Art and City Museum by [MAD Architects](http://www.i-mad.com/work/ordos-museum/?cid=4&ref=hyperallergic.com) and a library in the shape of three giant book spines. In one image, stupendously massive, dueling horses — sculpted of bronze, no less — balance on their hind legs as an absurd, frozen sign of life in an otherwise static tableau. Located within the city of Ordos, these sleek structures began rising in 2004 after city officials launched a plan to create a state-of-the-art metropolis. Kangbashi, built with the profits earned from the city’s coal deposits — among the nation’s richest — was intended for one million residents. In 2008, Ai Weiwei and the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron even curated an architectural project to spruce up an area just six miles away from Kangbashi’s center. Titled [*Ordos 100*](http://aiweiwei.com/documentaries/ordos-100/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the project invited over 100 international architects to design villas; you can watch a [documentary](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time%5Fcontinue=740&v=kQNVUH-duCE&ref=hyperallergic.com) on the planning of the project, which remains largely unrealized. The few completed buildings sit unoccupied and are already show signs of weathering. “Just outside the few busy streets of the ‘center,’ everything is still really empty,” Olivier [said](http://www.lostateminor.com/2015/12/29/this-chinese-city-is-completely-abandoned-and-makes-for-incredible-photography/?ref=hyperallergic.com). “And the crazy buildings that were probably looking brand new 10 years ago are already falling apart due to cheap and fast construction, giving way to a totally surreal, post-apocalyptic landscape of decaying monuments and empty housing projects.” ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5114](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5114.jpg) Ordos Library The district started receiving international attention for its deserted setting around 2010, when most of the buildings had wrapped up construction but remained largely unoccupied or unused. In the last few years, however, Kangbashi has actually witnessed an influx of new residents according to a pair of filmmakers who recently produced a documentary on the city. As Adam Smith and Song Ting, who in late 2014 premiered [*The Land of Many Palaces*](http://www.thelandofmanypalaces.com/?ref=hyperallergic.com), [told](http://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/04/ordos-a-ghost-town-that-isnt/274776/?ref=hyperallergic.com) *The Atlantic* in 2013: > When we first went there two years ago, the new city was actually quite empty. When you go there now, it is a lot livelier. It’s a mix of people: people who have been relocated from the greater Ordos region, people who have moved there from the old town — for whatever reason — and other people that are there who moved there in search of new economic opportunities, whether it’s migrant workers in the construction industry, or families from Beijing looking to live in a place with more space and less air pollution. According to Smith and Ting, about 500,000 people lived in Kangbashi then. Although Olivier observed one year later that many of the city’s giant residential complexes still remained “almost completely empty” and its art museum — one of Kangbashi’s most iconic buildings — still attracts few visitors, the population is on the rise. As Smith [described extensively](http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/nov/06/-sp-china-ghost-city-kangbashi-ordos-re-education-campaign?ref=hyperallergic.com) in the *Guardian* around the time of his film’s premiere, many farmers and their families are moving to the city, attracted largely by a generous government compensation package. New buildings are still being built — a sign of enduring hope despite the many desolate images of abandonment. Only time will reveal whether Olivier’s images are among the last to show Kangbashi in the state of desolation that first put it on the international map. ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6540](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6540.jpg) Abandoned building from the ‘Ordos 100’ project ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5640](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5640.jpg) Abandoned building from the ‘Ordos 100’ project ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6301](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6301.jpg) Office buildings in Kangbashi ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6332](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6332.jpg) A building in Ordos ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6393](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6393.jpg) Ordos Horse Racing Track ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6675](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6675.jpg) The stadium in Ordos ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6793](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6793.jpg) Abandoned building from the ‘Ordos 100’ project ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6862](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6862.jpg) Abandoned building from the ‘Ordos 100’ project ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6877](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6877.jpg) Abandoned building from the ‘Ordos 100’ project ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5075](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5075.jpg) The Ordos Art & City Museum ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5484](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5484.jpg) Ordos Grand Theatre ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5539](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5539.jpg) A residential building in Ordos ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5565](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5565.jpg) A row of western-style houses in Ordos ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6240](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6240.jpg) Buildings tower over the empty streets in Ordos ![Ordos-China-Architecture-6580](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-6580.jpg) Ordos Sports Center Stadium ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5658](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5658.jpg) Ordos Stadium ![Ordos-China-Architecture-5689](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2015/12/ordos-china-architecture-5689.jpg) The plaza of a building in Ordos