Ghost Park

As many of you already know, Ordos has a new district, and an old district. The new district is called Kangbashi, the now world-famous "Ghost City" documented by the BBC, Al Jazeera, and numerous bloggers. The ghost city is sparsely inhabited, despite being heavily built up with luxury housing, ultra-modern architecture, and world class (FREE, yes, FREE) public transit. What is unknown to the outside world, is the fact that the old district is full of incomplete building projects which must be worth billions. They are literally everywhere. I have become completely desensitized to the presence of incomplete high-rises. I did, however, discover one of Ordos' quirkier incomplete projects, which came in the form of a public park; if you will, a Ghost Park, which I, Lord Ordos, now present to you.

It is standard practice in both China and Korea to have large rocks at the entrance to noteworthy places. Normally, however, the rock will be inscribed with pleasing calligraphy. They never got around to the calligraphy, so it's just a huge rock at the entrance, which faces a mostly unused road. Note the rows of trees planted as part of the government's effort to fight desertification. 

This is a small plaza surrounding the rock. Note the total absence of, well, anyone.

They went through the considerable trouble of building an artificial stream through this park, only to let it become grown in with bull rush and weeds.

This is the stairwell leading down to the park. You can't see it in the picture, but it's actually crumbling. The entire row of apartment blocks in the background are completely uninhabited. If you look closely, you'll see four in the background that are just concrete and re-bar.

This is one of several tennis courts they built. They've gone unused for so long the doors are falling off their hinges. There's no net. It's closed with a chain. I think it's safe to say that it's never been used.

This is a statue of...something. The red paint is peeling off, and the faux-marble siding on the base is crumbling off.

A sewer lid, encased in a plastic tree stump. I guess it didn't occur to the designer that elevating a sewer lid on a plastic tree stump makes the sewer lid more obvious, and not less so. 

This was at the other end of the park. It's a pile of artificial rocks in the middle of the artificial stream. There were a lot of birds perched on it before I approached in a not-so-stealthy fashion. I guess I'll never work for National Geographic. Note that there are more unfinished apartment complexes in the background.

Now for the piece d'resistance. A giant plastic tree stump, which was intended to be a small fuse room, judging by all the cables that are sticking out its floor. The apartment complexes in the background are also uninhabited, but at least they got a nice coat of paint.