Built for over a million people, the city of Ordos was designed to be the crowning glory of Inner Mongolia. Doomed to incompletion however, this futuristic metropolis now rises empty out of the deserts of northern China. Only 2% of its buildings were ever filled; the rest has largely been left to decay, abandoned mid-construction, earning Ordos the title of China's Ghost City.

China has recently relaxed its one child policy that was used to control a burgeoning population. A couple has their wedding photo taken in an old quarter of Beijing on May 24, 2016. (Photo by Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post)

A glass is checked at the table for China's top leaders before the start of a reception to celebrate National Day at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China September 30, 2016. China celebrates its National Day on October 1. (Photo by Damir Sagolj/Reuters)

A group of fashionable nonagenarians pose for a photo in Pengzhou, Sichuan, China on October 12, 2016. (Photo by Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Robot inventor Wu Yulu sits on a rickshaw driven by a robot which he invented in his village in rural Beijing's Tongzhou district, China, 17 November 2016. The 54-year-old Chinese farmer living in rural Beijing's Tongzhou district invented 63 robots in the past 30 years. Wu, who only received primary school education, plans to give up the agricultural work for his robot products. He regularly participates in exhibitions, transfers patent rights and teaches at the university to earn money. (Photo by Wu Hong/EPA)

A student from “the cliff village” in Atule'er climbs newly-constructed steel ladders after school to go home for holidays, in Liangshan Sichuan province, China, November 19, 2016. The steel ladders which replaced the unsafe vine ladders shortened the time taken for the children to go home, from three hours to two. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A girl takes a nap during a Christmas eve mass at a Catholic church on the outskirts of Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi province, December 24, 2016. (Photo by Jason Lee/Reuters)

Women are reflected on silver panels of the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton flagship store at the Central Business District in Beijing, Wednesday, March 6, 2019. China will bar government authorities from demanding overseas companies hand over technology secrets in exchange for market share, a top economic official said Wednesday, addressing a key complaint at the heart of the current China-U.S. trade dispute. (Photo by Andy Wong/AP Photo)