Ordos (Mongolian: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Ordus.svg/15px-Ordus.svg.png, Ordus; Chinese: 鄂尔多斯; Pinyin: È'ěrduōsī) is a city in Inner Mongolia, China. Administratively, it is a prefecture-level city which governs a large region in southwestern Inner Mongolia. Ordos City was founded on February 26th 2001 in on the basis of the former Ikh Juu league (Chinese: 伊克昭盟 Yikezhao Meng), a name used for the area since the 17th Century. "Ordos" means "palaces" in the Mongolian language[2], the name is sometimes claimed to be related to the eight white yurts of Genghis Khan[3]. Its seat of government is Dongsheng District.

The city has an administrative area of 86,752 km² and covers the bigger part of the Ordos Desert. The city borders Hohhot which is to its east, Baotou to its northeast, Bayan Nur to its north, Alashaa to its northwest, Wuhai to its west, Ningxia to its southwest, and Shaanxi and Shanxi to its south. At the end of 2004, Ordos had a population of about 1.36 million inhabitants. The city is known for its lavish government projects, which erected a whole district of fancy buildings and abundant infrastructure that is seldom used by residents.[4] Compare unoccupied buildings in Chenggong and the New South China Mall.

Ordos Project website:
http://www.ordosproject.com/

Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordos_City

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http://www.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1975397,00.html

Nobody lives in New ordos, only rich communist officials can afford housing there along with foreigners.

^^ yes.... right, I heard, new ordos and they are richer....!! Congratulations... :)

Based on supply and demand law, the house price in the Ordos should be fall. The real estate developer or may be local government is so stubborn.

Ordos 100 (http://www.archdaily.com/tag/ordos-100/)(ArchDaily) :soon:

From the Chamber President's Blog (http://chamberprez.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/adventures-in-ordos-part-2/) (North Dakota) after his March 2010 visit to Ordos:

The New Ordos City

Imagine in 25 years tha we live in Bismarck-Mandan and decide it is time to remodel the community. However, instead of remodeling, we decide that North on the river is better. So, we just build a new city. That about explains the new Ordos City. Mr. Wong took us to visit this new city and words cannot really explain it. Ordos is one of 16 cities that China is commissioning and building as a modern city. And, these are not models, they are actually being constructed.

The plan is to build a city for 300,000 people. It is planned to be very efficient, from the residental and business district to the mall that unites the new government building with the central business district being built on the newly established riverfront with five modern skyscrapers. It’s the Field of Dreams based on the “if you build it they will come” concept. And, they are coming; Already 100,000 people live in the city. The major industry is car manufacturing in a partnership with Hyndia, and French and German companies. They even built new schools and a University with a capacity for 20,000 students. Enrollment is currently 1,000.

As we all stood on the new riverfront plaza, the discussion among our group was how to explain this to people back home. Here is my best effort. If you take the confidence of the United States after WWII and combine it with the ingenuity and momentum of the American Industrial Revolution, that is China today. You can feel the confidence and momentum.

Ordos is one of 16 cities that China is commissioning and building as a modern city

What are the other 15 cities?

Great thread, I've add it to Mainland City Index (http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=936134)

why somebody said new Ordos?
is there old ordos and what the relation of both?

why somebody said new Ordos?
is there old ordos and what the relation of both?
There is an old ordos which 1.5 million people live in right now and new ordos which is supposedly the new ordos which is suppose to move people from old ordos to new ordos.

There is an old ordos which 1.5 million people live in right now and new ordos which is supposedly the new ordos which is suppose to move people from old ordos to new ordos.

what the reason to built new ordos and why should be moved to there?
another question is how long the distance between old and new ordos?

what the reason to built new ordos and why should be moved to there?
another question is how long the distance between old and new ordos?
The government needs to spend some money and it's like a fairly short distance.

The government needs to spend some money and it's like a fairly short distance.

thanks for your info
btw, the new ordos is very very silent city...

This is crazy, what a waste of money, its also poorly planned, you cant plan a city from scratch like that, cities need to grow naturally. I bet all of these planned "model cities“ will be complete failures and will never be as liveable as the cities we have now

Erdos (http://www.chinaerdos.com/chinese/default.asp)
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cross-posting from GH's thread

Ordos (鄂尔多斯), is called Dongsheng () previously, is in Inner Mongolia Province, China

Old city district
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Kangbashi (康巴什) new district, 17 miles south of old city district, is a totally new town. It was said it is an empty ghost town. Since Ordos is a rich fast-growing city. It will be filled up quickly.

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And it's the Gobi and the place said that Genghis Khan was laid there forever
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cross-posting from GH's thread

GDP per capita in Ordos is almost twice of that in Shanghai. They have a lot of cash to spend on infrastructures, although it seems they are not doing it in the right way.

^^So far from what I learn. GDP per capita didn't represent local people income, especially for developing country like China and mining city like Ordos. Because most of money went to big private companies and SOEs.

Minimum wage is more accurate to tell people economy condition.

^^ dude, in cities like Ordos, most money goes to state owned companies and local governments. Just remember the fact that its fiscal revenue (from January to July 2010) increases by 50.1% and reaches 33.88 billion RMB. This is a rich government.

Average/median income in Ordos is not that impressive at all. Let's see if the local government is going to distribute the money well to its people.

^^ it's common for developing countries where the govt needs money to invest on infrastructure projects. In developed countries, the people get the money to buy stuff.

It's consistent with the fact that investment occupies majority of GDP in developing countries while consumption makes up the majority of GDP in developed countries.

Not only Ordos, A lot of more places in Inner Mongolia seem go crazy. Here are a new ghost town in the middle of nowhere.
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And this unknown small town has such wide road.
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^^
OMG.....:shocked::eek2:
will more building in future... :cheers:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17390729

Seems Ordos is the biggest ghost town in China :(

Spinning forward

Updated: 2012-03-16 08:48

By Hu Haiyan (China Daily)


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The city of Ordos has about 200 producers of soft wool, with some trying to move up to the high-end market.


Ordos, which some refer to as the Capital of Cashmere, is searching for a way to upgrade its manufacturing sector

In one of the richest cities in China, once-prosperous cashmere makers may be at their tipping point. As in many cities in China, manufacturers in Ordos in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region are searching for a way to combat an industrial shift as well as the challenging economic environment. According to official statistics, there are about 200 producers of soft wool in Ordos, among which almost 150 are small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Almost all of the SMEs are not creating their own designs, but manufacturing fabrics and clothes for domestic and foreign brands. They are known as original equipment manufacturers (OEM).

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The total value of cashmere exports last year was 4 billion yuan ($632 million, 482.4 million euros), an increase of 14.4 percent, according to the Ordos Dongsheng district economic and informatization bureau, a branch of the local government that oversees cashmere production in the district where most of the city's cashmere is produced.

The numbers seem positive, because exports are increasing, but figures can be deceiving.

"In the past, we were just doing OEM for foreign brands, making very poor profits," says Zhang Ruiguo, 49, the founder and general manager of Ordos Rui Guo Cashmere Co Ltd.

"With the rising yuan exchange rate, increasing labor costs and the price of raw materials, the profit margin has diminished tremendously. So we decided to establish our own brand, called Xi Rong, in 2008," Zhang says.

"Now, through sales under our own brand, gross profits rose to 300 yuan for one garment, seven times that for doing an OEM piece," Zhang says.

But in the city that produces 75 percent of the global output, it is not easy to revitalize its former pillar industry. Especially when "most of the local cashmere makers are small-sized ones, which do not have sufficient capital to provide high value-added products, but just heavily rely on the OEM business," says Wang Ying, chairman of the trade union at the Ordos Dongsheng district economic and informatization bureau.

On Dalate South Road in the Dongsheng district, a local cashmere production hub, many workshops have been shuttered for more than three months. In some factories, several workers idle away by bathing in the sunshine while banners advertising discounts flutter in the winter wind of this northern city.

Wu La, founder and general manager of Ordos Han Ji Er Cashmere Co Ltd located on the desolate street, is a typical cashmere producer who is battling the odds for survival in a gloomy market.

The 38-year-old had to close three of his workshops and last year cut more than half the number of his employees - to 12 - because of uncertain market conditions.

"Frankly speaking, I made a lot of money when I stepped into this industry in 1993. But now it is probably the toughest period I have ever experienced in my life. I haven't even received any orders so far," Wu says.

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The flagship store of Erdos Group in Shanghai. [Provided to China Daily]

Li Heping, 60, founder and general manager of Ordos Jin Li Cashmere Co Ltd, goes beyond the seemingly promising rising export figures.

"Despite the large volume, China's cashmere makers make very few profits compared with the foreign brands," Li says. Jin Li Cashmere, founded in 2006 with a workforce of 50, made less than 1 million yuan last year from OEM orders.

"Although the orders weren't small, we only made a small amount of profit in return, which is equal to nothing if operation costs are taken into consideration," Li says.

"For the past five years, I got up at 6:30 am every day and went to sleep at midnight. I devote my life to my company's development, yet the return is so poor."

He remembers the "good old days" of cashmere in Ordos in the 1990s when there were fewer domestic players and the foreign players came to China to find suitable manufacturers.

"Back then, the cashmere output could not satisfy the domestic market's needs, let alone the international ones," he says.

But things changed dramatically in 2005. "Coastal cities took the OEM jobs for the foreign brands, which took away large amounts of our orders. And the outbreak of the financial crisis in the Western world also made the situation worse," says Wang Haijun, vice-director of the Dongsheng district economic and informatization bureau.

He says at one time this industry contributed the largest share to the local GDP, yet now, as the price of raw materials and labor costs increase, the profit margins have diminished. Especially after many resources such as natural gas, coal and rare earths have been tapped here, the local government is attaching less importance to this industry's development, Wang says.

The price of cashmere has also impacted the cashmere industry's development.

"The average price of cashmere was 1.2 million yuan a ton back in the 1990s, but now it sells at 800,000 yuan a ton. It is even lower than the price of mutton. Farmers are sometimes not willing to breed the goats to make cashmere, but slaughter them before the cashmere is ready," Li says.

Providing more value-added products is a way to resolve these problems, experts say.

Stephen Roach, senior research fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, says: "To maintain sustainable development, China should shift to consumption-led growth. And the way out for these cashmere producers is definitely to move up the value chain." He made the remarks during a recent discussion on China's economic future during an exchange between Yale and Tsinghua universities.

Ju Xinghai, a chief textile-clothing analyst at CITIC Securities Co Ltd in Shanghai, echoes that sentiment.

"The current problems in the cashmere industry of Ordos are not limited to that city. It is reflecting the problems facing China as a whole. China should establish more global brands instead of winning market share and foreign reserves through cheap labor products, like it did many years ago," he says.

During last week's annual meeting of National People's Congress, Wang Linxiang, president of Erdos Group, proposed that the government ease the tax burden on the textile industry, especially SMEs, to encourage growth and develop new technology.

One company aggressively moving into the high-end market is Erdos Group.

Li Changqing, general manager of Erdos Resources Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Erdos Group, says it takes time and patience to build world-famous brands such as Prada, yet "local cashmere brands boast many advantages, such as large production capacity and rich experience of OEM production".

But one thing China's cashmere industry lacks is unique and creative design.

Erdos Group spends almost 4 percent of its revenue on design and employs 2,000-plus people to develop new patterns and on research and development, says Li with Erdos Group.

Li, a native of the area who has worked for Erdos Group since 1982, says the city of Ordos is endowed with favorable climate conditions to raise goats and produce good quality cashmere.

"Ordos city provides 40 percent of the nation's cashmere and one-third of that of the whole world, and there is no exaggeration to say that Ordos is the 'Capital of Cashmere'," he says.

Kang Ming, 53, the general manager and founder of Ordos Dong Jian Cashmere Co Ltd, owns a small two-room factory that is several steps away from the towering building of Erdos Group.

"Just several meters away, you can enter a different world. It's so dusty and crowded here," says Wu, looking out at the street dotted by lots of small cashmere producers like his company.

Kang says compared with SMEs like his, it is much easier for Erdos Group, a large conglomerate that is supported by its other highly profitable businesses such as mineral resources or real estate, to transform from an OEM-based company to one famous for its own high-end products.

During a lunch featuring the local specialty of lamb's leg, Kang points at the dish and says: "Look, the cashmere makes so little profit now that sometimes I want to shift to just selling lamb," Kang says. "Everyone knows the only way to survive is by making his own brand, but not every one can afford that."

Jin Yudan, the partner of SAIF RMB Fund, a leading Asian private equity firm, says that though the situation is bleak for small companies, it is also an opportune time for the entire industry.

"For some big companies, this situation offers opportunities for them to merge and acquire some suitable small companies to expand their business scale," Jin says.

Despite the SMEs' concerns, the local government is confident of the cashmere industry's sound development. It plans to spend 1.6 billion yuan to establish a textile industrial park in Dongsheng district by 2013.

"This new hub for the cashmere industry will help complete the industrial chain of cashmere production in Ordos and integrate the currently scattered producers," says Wang, chairman of the local bureau.

Wang, who parked in his Volkswagen in a vast, empty lot, says the land will be as prosperous as Dongsheng is today.

"It is expected that sales revenue of cashmere for Ordos city will rise from today's 2.44 billion yuan to 15 billion yuan by 2015."

huhaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn

The maker of the 911 sports car opened a dealership in Ordos -- a sparsely populated mining city known as home to Genghis Khan’s mausoleum -- in March after sales jumped 10-fold in four years to 200 vehicles, according to the head of Porsche China. Executives at Volkswagen AG (VOW)’s Bentley and Fiat SpA (F)’s Maserati said they also plan to open showrooms in the city.

- By Bloomberg News (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-27/porsche-mongolian-push-shows-chinese-wealth-heading-west.html)- Apr 26, 2012 6:57 PM MT

Only in china is 1.6 million 'sparsely populated' and at the same time a 'town'.

Dongsheng District, Ordos

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Dongsheng District, Ordos

So new developments still going on in Dongsheng? What are they gonna about the water problem? The whole point about New Ordos (Kangbashi) is because it's closer to the new reservoir. Are they planning to bring water to Ordos now instead of bring Ordos to water?

Kangbashi district 2013
http://www.lvwo.com/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=20834&extra=page%3D1&frombbs=1

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