There is such a city in China, where it is rumored that "luxury cars are running all over the place, good wine is bought by the box, and there are rich people everywhere".
But it is not an economically powerhouse city such as Beijing and Shanghai, nor is it in the industrially dense province of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, but a small third- and fourth-tier city located on a plateau, with deserts or sandy areas in the northwest and south.
The city has only been established for 23 years, but it has already won the top spot in terms of GDP per capita many times. But at the same time, in the process of development, it has been labeled as a "ghost town" by the outside world and has fallen into a "resource curse".
It is Ordos.
Labeled as the "richest" and "ghost town" at the same time, what is the real Ordos like? What kind of growing pains has it experienced?
China's richest city,
It's not Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen
Ordos is a typical northwestern city, with nearly half of the land covered by the Mu Us Desert and the Kubuqi Desert, and the forest coverage rate is only 27.31% [1].
With strong winds and sandy winds, nine droughts in ten years, people living here will inevitably suffer from wind and sand. Even online shopping is a "remote area" and enjoys no free shipping.
Xiangshawan in Ordos, Inner Mongolia, with continuous sand dunes / Picture insect creativity
But it is such a city, ranking first in the country's per capita GDP.
In 2023, Ordos' per capita GDP will reach 264,700 yuan, 2.96 times the national average[2][3].
For reference, a per capita GDP of more than $20,000 (about 144,000 yuan at the current exchange rate) is generally considered the standard for advanced economies. In this way, Ordos has entered the list of developed cities.
Ordos' GDP per capita tops the list, and an important factor is the small number of people.
In 2023, the permanent population of Ordos will only be 2.22 million[2], which is insignificant compared to the population base of more than 20 million people in the north. Xiangyang and Jinhua, which have the same economic aggregate, can also have a few streets in Ordos in terms of permanent population.
On the other hand, Ordos' economy has achieved a "soaring" in just a few years, and it is known as the "Little Dubai of the East".
Inner Mongolia Ordos Kangbashi Square, the Grand Theater, libraries, museums, etc. are located here
From 2017 to 2022, its GDP has continuously crossed the three 100 billion mark, 300 billion yuan, 400 billion yuan, and 500 billion yuan [4]. In 2023, Ordos' GDP will reach 584.986 billion yuan[2]. This may not be as good as many new first-tier cities, but it is 1.54 times that of the provincial capital Hohhot [5].
Ordos is rich in Tibet, with an average of 92 cars per 100 households, much higher than the national average of 43.5 cars[4][6]; While cervical cancer vaccines in other provinces and cities are still hard to come by, women aged 13-18 in Ordos can receive them free of charge [7].
All this is thanks to four words: "raise your eyebrows", that is, cashmere, coal, rare earths and natural gas.
In 2001, Ordos withdrew from the alliance and established a city, which coincided with China's energy strategic transfer and large-scale investment and construction. At this time, the supply of coal, which is the main energy source, exceeded demand, and the price soared [8]. With its own energy advantages, Ordos has caught up with this east wind.
Its proven coal reserves exceed 201.7 billion tons, accounting for one-sixth of the country's total, making it a proper coal producer [9].
In the past 10 years, the total GDP has soared from about 18.253 billion yuan in 2001 to 202.249 billion yuan in 2011[4], an increase of more than ten times. Private coal mining enterprises such as Yitai and Huineng began to emerge and form groups to support the coal mining industry in Ordos.
Not only that, Ordos sits on 1/3 of the country's natural gas and abundant rare earths [9], escorting the rapid development of optics, chemistry and other fields.
What is even more envious of others is that the Albas cashmere goat, known as "soft gold", also comes from Ordos. The annual production of cashmere here is 1,700 tons, and the output of cashmere products accounts for 1/3 of the country's [9]. The well-known cashmere industry "Hermes" - Ordos is directly named after the city, and an ordinary cashmere sweater can even be sold for thousands of yuan.
Workers in a wool factory inspect the condition of wool / Picture Worm Idea
Small "desert" cities with little industrial base have a strong development momentum, mainly because God is chasing after them to feed the resources and eat. However, this is not an exception, among the top 10 cities in terms of per capita GDP, Yulin and Karamay, both prefecture-level cities, also make their fortunes by eating resources.
No. 1 GDP per capita, why it became a "ghost town"
But coal mining is always a blessing and a curse. Relying too much on the sweetness of God's reward, the former advantage has become a sugar-coated cannonball.
In 2010, a reporter went to the Kangbashi district of Ordos and found that "there was not a single pedestrian in 15 minutes, and less than 10 cars passed by."
At that time, Kangbashi New Town, which was originally planned to be occupied by a population of 1 million, had a permanent population of less than 100,000 and a vacancy rate of 80% [10].
Since then, Ordos has been labeled a "ghost town", but this is only a microcosm of its economic woes.
At the beginning of the 21st century, in order to break the limited development of the old city and attract investment, Ordos renovated the old city on a large scale and built a new city. In 2010, the construction area and residential area in Ordos reached about 13 times and 4 times that of 2005, respectively [4].
Kangbashi District, as the central urban area of Ordos, was a bleak scene 20 years ago
Until now, when you walk into Ordos, you will see that the city is full of strange buildings, which is the famous "ORDOS 100" project at that time: 100 designers from 27 countries and regions around the world were invited to participate in the design, but few were finally completed, and the rest were left unfinished in the wasteland [11].
What is not commensurate with the speed of real estate development is the low population growth rate. The lack of infrastructure and the lack of attractive jobs have led to a disdain for high-quality talent from outside the city [12].
Despite the large number of newly built housing sites in the city of Ordos, the occupancy rate of housing is relatively low due to the sparse population / Picture Worm Ideas
On the other hand, Ordos's unreasonable industrial structure has also laid a thunder for economic growth.
During the golden decade of coal, the secondary industry became the main force of Ordos's GDP. However, local resources have gradually become the main support of government finances, and the crisis has quietly come.
The coal industry has overexpanded, absorbing most of the material resources and labor of society, and seizing the living space of other industries [9]. Since 2009, the number of employees in the mining industry in Ordos has increased dramatically, surpassing that of the manufacturing industry [13].
The development and prosperity of the resource industry has swept away the talents and capital of the primary and tertiary industries, and built an impermeable wall for the diversification of the industrial structure[9][13].
In 2009, the hidden danger finally appeared. Affected by the financial crisis, international coal prices have sat on a slippery slide [8]; To add insult to injury, the nationwide anti-smog campaign is in full swing, leading to an imbalance between coal supply and demand [14].
Coal yard of a coal-fired power plant, coal piles up, machinery roars / Picture worm creativity
Ordos' coal industry has come to a standstill, and the city's economy is sluggish. In 2009, Ordos' GDP growth plummeted from 31.25% in 2008 to 18.71%, and reached a trough in 2015[4]. The growth rate of its resident population has also begun to slow down, and the growth rate of per capita GDP has shown a downward trend as a whole [4].
But what is more worrying about Ordos is the common development of resource-based cities in the Yellow River Basin.
From 2008 to 2017, Ordos regarded energy development as its lifeblood in terms of economic development. Although the proportion of natural energy production in the country has remained above 20% all year round, Ordos's GDP only accounts for about 3% of the country's GDP [15].
The high level of resource exploitation has failed to drive the economic take-off, which means that Ordos has unfortunately fallen into the "resource curse" [15]. In other words, over-reliance on coal leads to a single and fragile industrial structure, which in turn leads to the fatal consequences of stagnant economic growth.
Ordos has been deeply aware of the dangers of the economic structure brought about by the "monopoly of coal".
Thrive on coal but not trapped in coal,
Where is the darling of nature?
The growth of Ordos in the past 20 years can be described as ups and downs. But fortunately, after the ups and downs, Ordos still has the resilience to get up.
After suffering the bitter fruit of "one coal dominance", Ordos has transformed to industrial diversification while developing the coal industry. Since the road of "coal alone" does not work, Ordos has found another way.
This road is renewable energy.
Perhaps the aura of coal is so strong that many people ignore that Ordos has a mid-temperate continental desert climate, where there is a large wind and sand, direct solar radiation is greater than 1900 kWh/m, and the annual sunshine duration reaches 3000 hours [16].
Considering the structure, sunshine and wind and sand, the designer integrated function, form and landscape, and finally designed the Xiangshawan Hotel in the shape of a lotus flower
Ordos has once again seized the dividends of natural resources.
A blue ocean of more than 3 million photovoltaic panels, located in the Kubuqi Desert, generates enough solar energy to "recharge" the city and even further afield in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
In 2023, Ordos will produce 1.592 million kilowatts of solar cells, accounting for only 0.29% of the country's output, but it is already a small step towards transformation [2][17].
And then there's the wind. Ordos is located in the tuyere area, and the effective wind time is long and stable. The vast and flat land, sparsely populated, is a treasure trove for building large-scale wind farms [18].
On the road of renewable energy, Ordos has been running wildly, with renewable energy generation reaching 10.48 billion kWh in 2023, accounting for 5.6% of the city's electricity generation [2].
Wind power windmills in Ordos help green energy flourish / Picture Worm Creativity
But Ordos' ambitions seem to be even bigger, so big that they are a little whimsical: it is building the world's largest photovoltaic industrial base, hydrogen energy industrial base...... From being caught in the shackles of coal to clinging to the "thighs" of renewable energy, Ordos's determination to say goodbye to the past is self-evident.
Although the momentum is good, this road to transformation may not be achieved overnight.
At present, the emerging industries in Ordos are still in the "novice" stage, and have not formed significant industrial advantages [19]. And in 2023, the added value of the mining industry in Ordos accounted for 79.4% of all above-scale industries, which is still an increase compared to 2022[2].
It will take longer to reduce reliance on mining, especially coal mining.
These are just fragments of Ordos's industrial transformation, and it still has many "treasures" and charms to be discovered.
For example, Ordos is proud of its natural beauty. It is located in the central and western part of Inner Mongolia, in the hinterland of the Yellow River, and has multiple landscapes such as deserts, grasslands, and canyons, and is even inferior to the recently popular Altay.
If you don't keep it, Ordos is the next Zibo and Harbin to be seen.
The Ordos grassland is vast and the scenery is breathtaking
And these are still inseparable from God's "reward".
But Ordos' ambitions are more than just the sky. When it understands the code of transformation, truly catches up with the pace of the times, and with its strong resilience and unlimited potential, it may be able to create another miracle?
[1] Ordos Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources. (2023). Ecological Restoration Plan of Land and Space in Ordos City (2021-2035).
[2] 鄂尔多斯统计局. (2024). 鄂尔多斯市2023年国民经济和社会发展统计公报. Retrieved 27 May 2024 from
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[3] The Central People's Government of the People's Republic of China. (2024). Seven sets of data look at the pulse of China's economy in 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2024 from
https://www.gov.cn/yaowen/liebiao/202401/content_6926680.htm.
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[6] National Bureau of Statistics. (2023). China Statistical Yearbook.
[7] Ordos Municipal Health Commission. (2023). Implementing the "Two Cancers" Prevention and Control Project to Protect Women's Health: Ordos City Deeply Implements the "Two Cancers" Prevention and Treatment Project for Women of Appropriate Age. Retrieved 27 May 2024 from
http://wjw.ordos.gov.cn/zdzt/jkeedsxd/202109/t20210922_2999270.html.
[8] Ma Zhe, & Zhang Tonggong. (2022). Research on the impact of international coal price fluctuations on the domestic coal market. Sino-Foreign Energy(11), 10-16.
[9] Ma Shuo. (2024). Adjustment and Optimization of Industrial Structure in Ordos City under New Structural Economics. Sustainable Development, 14(1), 119-131.
[10] Chen Jianjun, & Yang Fei. (2013). Research on the causes and countermeasures of the phenomenon of "empty city" in regional economic transformation. Economic Perspective, (11), 66-70.
[11] De Muynck, B. (2013). Architecture on the move: Urban and architectural design in Inner Mongolia. In Cultural Adaptation (pp. 103-113). Routledge.
[12] Wang Chunmeng, & Gu Renxu. (2014). Research on the path of realizing "industry-city integration" in Kangbashi New Area. Chinese Population, Resources and Environment, (S3), 287-290.
[13] Ordos Bureau of Statistics. (2003-2023). Ordos Statistical Yearbook (2003-2023).
[14] 张翼. (2014). 向“心肺之患”宣战. 光明日报. Retrieved 27 May 2024 from
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[15] Zilong Zhang, Bo Wang, Zhi Long, & Yanbi Chen. (2021). Fiscal decentralization, industrial upgrading, technological progress and the "resource curse". Economic Latitude and Economics, 38(3).
[16] Zhang J, Yin J, & Wang Wenjun. (2011). Optimal capacity matching of wind and solar complementation in Ordos New Energy Industry Demonstration Zone. Power & Energy, 32(3), 224-227.
[17] National Bureau of Statistics. (2024). Statistical Communiqué of the People's Republic of China on National Economic and Social Development in 2023.
[18] Bao Xiuqin, Lu Yue, Cong Lidong, & Bian Zhiguang. (2022). Research on the path of promoting "two modernizations" in key areas of energy transition in Inner Mongolia under the "dual carbon" goal: A case study of Ordos City, Inner Mongolia. Frontier (06), 114-124.
[19] Yang Chenguang. (2019). Research on Promoting the Transformation and Upgrading of Industrial Structure of Resource-based Cities in Ordos City. Northern Economy(06), 61-63.
Source: WeChat public account "Inspur Studio"
Author: Xie Maomao
Editor: Deng Rumeng
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