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The red light of the Ejin Horo Banner Gymnasium. Ejin Horo, that is still Ordos District, is another ghost city.
*** General Caption ***
China became an urban society in 2011, when for the first time the number of city dwellers exceeded the rural population, indeed, the 51% of the Chinese population live in cities, as in 1979, at Deng Xiaoping's time, it was 19%. A report from the McKinsey Global Institute projected that between 2009 and 2025, 350 million people would move from China’s rural parts to its eastern cities.
The migrations are expected and driven towards the city of second and third size. These new cities, which are often zoned as new districts of existing municipalities, are built up from scratch, topped off with public works infrastructure, schools, government buildings, stores, malls, massive amounts of housing, universities, and sometimes even stadiums all before a single resident moves in.
The benefits of this urban development strategy are that an entire city can be built on a single, fully integrated plan, but the risks are absolute: if the project fails, an entire city goes under. Nowadays the Kangbashi district, built on the north bank of the Wulan Mulun River, planned to accommodate a population over of one million, is home to a lonely 10,000 people – leaving more than 98% of this 355-square kilometer site either under construction or abandoned altogether. Housing prices have fallen from $1,100 to $470 per square foot, over the last five years.
*** General Caption ***
China became an urban society in 2011, when for the first time the number of city dwellers exceeded the rural population, indeed, the 51% of the Chinese population live in cities, as in 1979, at Deng Xiaoping's time, it was 19%. A report from the McKinsey Global Institute projected that between 2009 and 2025, 350 million people would move from China’s rural parts to its eastern cities.
The migrations are expected and driven towards the city of second and third size. These new cities, which are often zoned as new districts of existing municipalities, are built up from scratch, topped off with public works infrastructure, schools, government buildings, stores, malls, massive amounts of housing, universities, and sometimes even stadiums all before a single resident moves in.
The benefits of this urban development strategy are that an entire city can be built on a single, fully integrated plan, but the risks are absolute: if the project fails, an entire city goes under. Nowadays the Kangbashi district, built on the north bank of the Wulan Mulun River, planned to accommodate a population over of one million, is home to a lonely 10,000 people – leaving more than 98% of this 355-square kilometer site either under construction or abandoned altogether. Housing prices have fallen from $1,100 to $470 per square foot, over the last five years.
- Copyright
- Alessandro Digaetano
- Image Size
- 5616x3744 / 6.4MB
- www.alessandrodigaetano.com
- Contained in galleries
- Ghost City (or wild concrete?), Portfolio
