Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town

Ordos, China: A Modern Ghost Town

Meant as home for one million people the Kangbashi district remains nearly empty five years after construction began
Michael Christopher Brown for TIME

All Quiet
The Kangbashi district began as a public-works project in Ordos, a wealthy coal-mining town in Inner Mongolia. The area is filled with office towers, administrative centers, government buildings, museums, theaters and sports fields—not to mention acre on acre of subdivisions overflowing with middle-class duplexes and bungalows. The only problem: the district was originally designed to house, support and entertain 1 million people, yet hardly anyone lives there.

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