Walking in Ordos

We checked into the hotel in Ordos late at night following a long day. After spending an afternoon in the desert, I was tired, hot, sweaty and my skin was oily with residual sunscreen. Not able to figure out the password to the wifi, I made the trip back to the front desk to ask for help. The elevator stopped on the sixth floor where a party was in full swing. Several young people crowded onto the elevator backing me into a corner. Four young women, recognizing me as a westerner, crowded around.  They threw one young woman with glasses in front of me and during the ride she grew increasingly comfortable leaning against me. I was not feeling my freshest, and did not relish the opportunity to have someone overly close or taking photographs, especially without a shower. Inevitably, as the door closed, the young woman’s friends began to take pictures with their smart phones.

New apartment flats in the center of Ordos

It is not uncommon for people in China to request westerners to pose for photos or to take a picture as secretly as possible. This is especially true for people with blond hair or blue eyes. The practice happens more frequently outside of Beijing and Shanghai. In Inner Mongolia, I have had many such encounters. Most of the time I am happy to oblige; but on occasion, when one is not at their best, I am less enthused about participating in the practice. I faced my encounter on the elevator with a certain amount of resignation.

In part I was surprised about the number of people in the hotel because Ordos is famously known as a “ghost city.” A city of a little over half a million people, Ordos is a remarkably small city by Chinese standards. The bus ride into the city center took us through the district that looked to be a ghost district. Many high-rise buildings were clearly empty, and awaiting tenants. The center of the city was more lively and busy.

On my early morning walk the following day, I was interested to observe the city and the ghost city phenomenon. It was a pleasant morning, but my phone warned that the weather was cloudy and “unhealthy for sensitive groups.” To be sure, there was a thin fog that hovered over the city, probably from the coal industry that has fueled the economic boom of the region.

It was shortly after 6am when I started my walk from the hotel. Despite the early hour, there were several workers assiduously sweeping the streets with long straw brooms. It was very quiet, as opposed to the previous evening, the only the loud sound was of older men clearing their throats and spitting. I was continuing to feel like an outsider. A man drove by on his moped and nearly fell off as he continued to stare at me while driving.

I stopped for a few minutes at a park near the main police station. I began thinking about had little wildlife I had seen in Inner Mongolia.  The most common bird, by far, was sparrows and I remembered the fate of these birds during the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s. In an attempt to modernize the country, from 1958 to 1962, the government called on citizens to attack the “four pests”: rats, flies, mosquitoes and sparrows. The sparrows were targeted because they ate grains especially rice. So many sparrows were killed it resulted in an ecological disaster because the birds ate a large number of insects as well.  

In the park there was a bridge that crossed a small creek on bridges that highlighted a pride in the community. A group of women, who were exercising in the park, formed a double circle. Most wore white pants, pink tops, and white gloves while stepping in place to do exercises coordinated to Chinese pop music. As I sat on a bench and surreptitiously watched the exercise, I noticed a woman in the distance doing the same exercises some fifty yards away. I made up stories in my mind that she might have been disowned from the group because of some indiscreet gossip or other communal infraction.  Meanwhile, some men and teenagers played basketball and badminton closer to the building.

Women (and a few men) exercising 

As I walked back to the hotel, to make sure I had breakfast before the bus left, I decided that Ordos had a façade of development that did not benefit everyone in the city yet. Lavish hotels and restaurants along the main thoroughfares hid more modest apartments in the center of most blocks. It is an area poised for a great future, or precariously clung to the hope that foreign visitors and deeper investments might bring prosperity for all. I found it difficult to believe that many international visitors would stay at the Meet You Hotel, which to me sounded more like a place for a liaison than an accommodation for tourists. My tour booked rooms at a very nice high-rise hotel, but just two blocks away was a small dwelling that used a blanket as a door with a hot plate and kettle just outside.