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)

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)

A participant peeks from his costume before the start of the the annual London Pantomime Horse Race in Greenwich, Britain December 13, 2015. (Photo by Neil Hall/Reuters)

Haitians cross a collapsed bridge on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, March 24, 2016. The bridge collapsed as a truck was crossing it on March 18, according to local media. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

A traffic police officer directs vehicles at a street junction during sunset in Pyongyang, North Korea, Thursday, August 25, 2016. (Photo by Dita Alangkara/AP Photo)