Kangbashi District 康巴什区 •ᠬᠢᠶᠠ ᠪᠠᠭᠰᠢ ᠳᠤᠭᠤᠷᠢᠭ | |
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 Kangbashi Bridge | |
  Kangbashi Location in Inner Mongolia Show map of Inner Mongolia Kangbashi Kangbashi (China) Show map of China | |
| Coordinates:39°35′49″N109°47′28″E / 39.597°N 109.791°E /39.597; 109.791 | |
| Country | China |
| Autonomous region | Inner Mongolia |
| Prefecture-level city | Ordos |
| District seat | Binhe Subdistrict |
| Area | |
• District | 352 km2 (136 sq mi) |
| • Urban (2018)[1] | 233 km2 (90 sq mi) |
| Population (2020)[2] | |
• District | 118,796 |
| • Density | 337/km2 (874/sq mi) |
| • Urban | 200,000 |
| • Urban density | 860/km2 (2,200/sq mi) |
| Time zone | UTC+8 (China Standard) |
| Website | www |
| Kangbashi District | |||||||||||||||||
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| Chinese name | |||||||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 康巴什区 | ||||||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 康巴什區 | ||||||||||||||||
| Hanyu Pinyin | Kāngbāshí Qū | ||||||||||||||||
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| Mongolian name | |||||||||||||||||
| Mongolian Cyrillic | Хиа багш дугариг | ||||||||||||||||
| Mongolian script | ᠬᠢᠶᠠ ᠪᠠᠭᠰᠢ ᠳᠤᠭᠤᠷᠢᠭ | ||||||||||||||||
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Kangbashi District (Chinese:康巴什区;Mongolian:ᠬᠢᠶᠠ ᠪᠠᠭᠰᠢ ᠳᠤᠭᠤᠷᠢᠭ,Hiya Bagsi dûgûrig) is anurban district of theprefecture-level city ofOrdos inInner Mongolia, China.
The district is internationally known for its opulent civic square and monuments and in 2009, made global headlines for having a population of around 30,000 people, which was considered small relative to the grandeur of the built-up space, and was deemed as a "ghost city".[4] However the district's population has grown since in the years afterwards, and had reached a size of almost 120,000 people in 2021.[5][6]
Within the Ordos prefecture, the district is located southwest ofDongsheng, the prior urban center of Ordos, and north ofEjin Horo Banner. Together with Dongsheng District and Ejin Horo Banner, it forms the city's urban core and is also the political and cultural center of Ordos City. Adjacent to the south isAltan Xire, the highly urbanized county seat of Ejin Horo Banner, separated from the district by theWulan Mulun River.
Kangbashi District's predecessor was Qingchunshan Development Zone, anautonomous region leveldevelopment zone, approved to be established in December 2000. In 2003, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region agreed to transfer the administrative area of Qingchunshan Development Zone from Yiqi toDongsheng District; in June of the same year, the fourth session of the People's Congress of Ordos City considered and passed the resolution of relocating the municipal government to Qingchunshan Development Zone; in May 2004, the municipal people's government approved the detailed control plan and renamed it asKangbashi New District. In 2006, the urban planning of thenew area was approved by the regional government as an important part of the overall urban planning of Ordos, and in July of the same year, the city government moved to the new area as a whole. After the preliminary work of planning, demonstration and approval, the construction of the new district officially started and was mainly carried out in three stages: from 2004 to 2007, the infrastructure construction stage; from 2007 to 2011, the above-ground project construction stage; from 2011 to 2015, the project construction perfection stage.
With an expanding district due to economic exploitation of the local natural resources, but dwindling water supplies due to the continual expansion of theOrdos Desert, Ordos officials were faced with a local infrastructure planning problem. Hence in 2003, Ordos city officials launched the creation of a new 1 million person city district. Located on a 355-square-kilometre (137 mi2) site 25 kilometres (16 mi) from the existing city ofDongsheng, the new city is located next to three existing reservoirs on the site of two former villages.[7]
In 2006, the municipal government moved its operations from Dongsheng to Kangbashi.[8]: 255 Afterwards, some of the area's best schools moved to Kangbashi.[8]: 255
By 2010, the current city on a site of 35 square kilometres (14 mi2) had capacity for at least 300,000 people, created with an estimated investment of around 1.1 trillion yuan ($161 billion).[9]
In 2016, the State Council agreed to approve the establishment ofcounty-level Kangbashi District, which is the same administrative division as the original Kangbashi New District.
In 2021, Nikkei Asia reported that after Ordos No. 1 High School and other locally prestigious schools had relocated to the district, property prices in the area increased significantly.[10]
Kangbashi District is made up of 4subdistricts.
| Name | Simplified Chinese | Hanyu Pinyin | Mongolian (Hudum Script) | Mongolian (Cyrillic) | Administrative division code |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subdistricts | |||||
| Hia Bagx Subdistrict | 哈巴格希街道 | Hǎbāgéxī Jiēdào | ᠬᠢᠶᠠ ᠪᠠᠭᠰᠢ ᠵᠡᠭᠡᠯᠢ ᠭᠤᠳᠤᠮᠵᠢ | Хиа багш зээл гудамж | 150603001 |
| Qingchunshan Subdistrict | 青春山街道 | Qīngchūnshān Jiēdào | ᠴᠢᠩ ᠴᠦᠨ ᠱᠠᠨ ᠵᠡᠭᠡᠯᠢ ᠭᠤᠳᠤᠮᠵᠢ | Чин цүн шин зээл гудамж | 150603002 |
| Binhe Subdistrict | 滨河街道 | Bīnhé Jiēdào | ᠪᠢᠨ ᠾᠧ ᠵᠡᠭᠡᠯᠢ ᠭᠤᠳᠤᠮᠵᠢ | Бин ге зээл гудамж | 150603003 |
| Kangxin Subdistrict | 康新街道 | Kāngxīn Jiēdào | ᠺᠠᠩ ᠰᠢᠨ ᠵᠡᠭᠡᠯᠢ ᠭᠤᠳᠤᠮᠵᠢ | Кан шин зээл гудамж | 150603008 |
Other: Ordos City High tech Industrial Park (鄂尔多斯市高新技术产业园区)
There is a campus ofBeijing Normal University and a municipal library. A five-storyshopping mall offers a food court and other shopping. A large "fountain show" provides evening entertainment.[11] Economic activity is gradually picking up with the help of the local government which has relocated its administrative center and high quality high schools here. A documentary has been produced by outside filmmakers which documents the facilities of the city and its gradual growth.[12]
Characterized as aghost town, Kangbashi was made world-famous by a news report in November 2009 fromAl Jazeera,[13] later picked up and expanded through an April 2010 article inTime magazine,[14] for having few residents but massive amounts of empty residential housing and high-tech public works projects. Subsequent reports have supported the claims that Kangbashi housed around 20,000 to 30,000 people as of 2010[update].[15] In 2014, the vacancy rate of new homes was 70%.[16][17]
Writing inForbes in 2017, Wade Shepard had questioned the justification for the label of "ghost city" and argued that it was being judged too quickly, as it was too soon to be speculating whether a new city will end up being largely uninhabited in the long run. Shepard noted that when Al Jazeera had visited Kangbashi, the city back then was only five years old, and had around 30,000 people, and that it really should have "impressed the world" for having an entirely new city and partially populating it in just five years' time. Shepard also pointed out that by the end of 2015, housing prices have risen by approximately 50% on average and that in 2017, the population has grown to 153,000 people, and there were around 4,750 businesses in operation in the city, as well as having just 500 apartments still left on the market, out of the 40,000 apartments that had been built since 2004.[6]
It's nice here," said one of the women. "My hometown is a tiny place in the grassland. The people here are more well educated. There's so much more to do here." What is there to do in Ordos? "I hang out with my friends. We study at the library. We go to the mall.
The government has moved its officials into the new town, and they've also moved some of the city's best schools into the new town, to try to bring in young people.