China Property Bubble: Ghost Town of Kangbashi in Ordos

All Quiet
The Kangbashi district began as a public-works project in Ordos, a wealthy coal-mining town in Inner Mongolia, China. A public-works project worthy of Kubla Khan’s “stately pleasure-dome,” 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.

Empty
Six years ago, Ordos county officials decided to move their headquarters out of old, cramped Dongsheng and into land that was then occupied by two small villages inhabited by about 1,400 people. By the end of 2008, the new district of Kangbashi was crisscrossed with 2.4 billion yuan ($352 million) worth of roads.  Though many of the properties in Kangbashi have been sold and a million people were projected to be living in Kangbashi by 2010, the city is still empty.

Vacant
Mostly empty apartment buildings in Kangbashi, a half hour down the road is Dongsheng, where most of Ordos’ 1.5 million resident call home.

Wealth and Knowledge
A pair of workers tidy up outside the public library. The city boasts the second highest per-capita income, behind to Shanghai but ahead of Beijing.

Treasure Palace
Workers carry pieces of foam up the stairs of the Ordos Museum, which is still under construction.

Monument
A pedestrian walks behind a giant sculpture of two horses in Kangbashi’s Linyinlu Square.

Light Traffic
Mostly empty apartment buildings stand in the distance.

No Sale
A pedestrian walks past a mostly unoccupied commercial area. Almost no businesses have moved into the new district.

Eerie Quiet
Empty streets remain empty even during the morning commute.

In Medias Res
An old man pushes a cart across a road segregating finished apartments and apartments still under construction.

Unfinished
Workers construct a plaza for un-present residents of an apartment complex.

On the Rise
Construction projects in Kangbashi continue despite the lack of occupancy.

From a Distance
Kangbashi awaits residents to bring the district, meant for a population the size of San Diego, California, to life.