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.

Boeing B-29 (#10) from the 24th Bomb Squadron, 6th Bomb Group after an emergency landing at Iwo Jima on April 24,1945. (Photo by U.S. Air Force)

Wingsuit flyer contestant Melissa Pemberton of the U.S. jumps off a mountain at Tianmen Mountain National Park in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province October 19, 2014. (Photo by Reuters/China Daily)

Bluey ballon flies as Spirit of America cheerleaders paricipate in the 96th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 24, 2022. (Photo by Andrew Kelly/Reuters)

Health workers in personal protective equipments (PPE) carrying Covid-19 coronavirus testing swabs and tubes are seen on bicycles along a street in Beijing on November 24, 2022. (Photo by Jade Gao/AFP Photo)

Divers perform underwater “Flying Apsaras” dance at Nanjing Underwater World on September 20, 2023 in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China. (Photo by Yang Bo/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)

A model takes a picture of photographers outside the Anna Sui show at the Strand Rare Book Room in New York on February 10, 2024. (Photo by Jeenah Moon for The Washington Post)

A kingfisher ignores the “no fishing” sign after catching food at Teddesley Park in Staffordshire, England, on Saturday, April 5, 2025. (Photo by Stuart Brock/Anadolu/Getty Images)