Inner Mongolia's Ghost Town

Concern is growing that China has vastly overbuilt its property sector. As Asia Sentinel reported on May 18, 2011, (Read: Is This the China that Can't?) by one estimate, 62 million residential units have no electricity connected to them, an indication that they are empty. As an example of the overbuilding, this series of pictures shows a new town in Kangbashi District in Inner Mongolia, designed to hold more than 1 million inhabitants.

Five years after construction started, it remains empty.The project was designed with office buildings, administrative areas, government agencies, museums, theaters and sports facilities, and housing. It may well be the biggest Chinese ghost town, but there are many more as local government leaders, whose pay and advancement is built on their contribution to GDP despite Beijing's efforts to rein them in, continue to build without concern about the consequences.

These pictures were made available to Asia Sentinel through the Sameera Aziz website.

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