Chinese Ghost Town

Where is everyone? The derelict majesty of Chinese ghost town built to house one million, but with less than 30,000 residents

    Construction on the Kangbashi New Area of the city of Ordos started in 2004
    It is filled with state-of-the-art infrastructure and stunning architectural structures

Ghost town: The Kangbashi New Area of the Chinese city of Ordos was built to house a million residents. Pictured is the central Linyinlu Square



With sprawling housing developments and state-of-the-art skyscrapers, the outward impression is of a bustling metropolis.

But look closer and the so-called Kangbashi New Area of the Chinese city of Ordos is anything but teeming with people.

Known as the ghost town district of the wealthy mining city, it was built to house a million residents.

But less than 30,000 live in this spanking new town, the construction of which started in 2004.

Yet it is filled with state-of-the-art infrastructure and stunning architectural structures like the Ordos Museum.

There are many reasons why people have stayed away, soaring property prices being the most cited.

Its close proximity to the existing old town of Dongsheng, about 15miles away, is also thought to have kept Kangbashi empty.

These pictures reveal a district filled with elaborate buildings and open spaces that are almost completely devoid of life.

Ordos officials announced they were to build the Kangbashi New Area on the site of two former villages, and next to three existing reservoirs, in 2003.

China last year announced plans to build 20 cities a year for the next 20 years.

And despite pictures showing some of the country's reported 64million empty homes, Chinese authorities have since erected masses more buildings.

But a government think-tank has warned that China's real estate bubble is getting worse, with property prices in major cities overvalued by as much as 70 per cent.

Of the 35 major cities surveyed in 2010, property prices in eleven, including Beijing and Shanghai, were between 30 and 50 per cent above their market value, the China Daily said, citing the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Prices in Fuzhou, capital of the south-eastern province of Fujian, had the worst property bubble with average house prices more than 70 per cent higher than their market value, according to the survey conducted in September.

The average price in the 35 cities surveyed was nearly 30 per cent above the market value, the report said.