The City Of Ordos Is The Ghost City Of The Future

China keeps growing like a giant red octopus fed by nuclear power and monosodium glutamate, a country that keeps spending money in pharaonic projects. Some useful, like the fastest train in the world. And some eerie and worthless, like Ordos.

The city of Ordos was founded on February 26, 2001. Ordos means “palaces” in Mongolian, and it’s richer than Beijing. In fact, with a $US14,500 GDP per capita, it’s one of the richest in the whole country. With 1,548,000 inhabitants, Ordos is not exactly empty. But much of its modern architecture, sometimes awesomely futuristic, sometimes nafftastically overdeveloped and underdesigned, remains completely empty. The density of this city is only 17.8 people per square kilometre. By comparison, New York City has 157.91 habitants per square kilometre, San Francisco has 6688.4, and Madrid 5293.69. Even the city of Dubai, which has only grew in recent years, has 408.18 people per square kilometre.

And yet, the city of Ordos keeps growing like its motherland, making little sense at times, and with nobody to fill its endless avenues. [Wikipedia]