When Ordos decided to build a new city in Kangbashi, I had just gone from Dongsheng Evening News to Ordos Daily. There are only two kinds of views, support and opposition, each has its own reasons.

2025/09/1406:57:39 news 1489

" Ghost City " Butterfly Record

Su Huailiang

Ordos When I decided to build a new city in Kangbashi , I just went from the Dongsheng Evening News to the " Ordos Daily ". After the news spread, public opinion was rampant and everything was said. There are only two kinds of views, support and opposition, each has its own reasons.

Due to professionalism, I am more concerned about this. From motion to implementation, the process is very difficult. As a reporter, I have seen the description and planning plan of the design concept of Kangbashi New District, and have visited the construction site of Kangbashi New District many times. When I arrived at the construction site for the first time, Kangbashi's "four connections and one leveling" began to take shape. In a desert, roads were crisscrossing, countless construction machinery and tower cranes were roaring, and on both sides of the road were piled with mountains of sand and various building materials. On the scaffolding, the arc flashes, and even during the day, the arc of and the sun shine brightly. That momentum and scene can only be described as shock. Behind this momentum is Ordos' strong economic strength and extraordinary spiritual will. The streets are flat and shiny day by day, the buildings are shining day by day, and the trees, flowers and plants are increasing day by day. Every time I come here, the changes are really changing with each passing day.

Kangbashi New City is like a field of crops, gradually growing from seedlings to flourishing. The market value of the party and government departments have been relocated one after another. The demolition households and employees of many units have also moved into brand new buildings. Commercial catering and other service industries related to the lives of urban residents are also increasing. But no matter what, the formation of a city takes time, and it cannot be three to five years or even ten years. It is unrealistic to make a newly built city prosperous in a short period of time. But Kangbashi is special, and her development speed is amazing.

The biggest feature of this new city of Kangbashi is that the planning and construction are in place in one step. Everything that should be built has been built, and the open space that should be left is left. In the more than ten years after the construction of the main facilities was completed, you could not see a construction site in the entire city, and you could not see a street being dug up and laid with new lines and pipelines. Despite this, Kangbashi, a city with pioneering design concepts, advanced functional planning, and rapid construction speed, I don’t know which nerve has touched some people. For a moment, rumors of slandering Kangbashi spread rapidly like influenza and SARS virus . Among them, the most widely spread and most influential is the "ghost town". The reason for its great influence is that the United States' " Times Weekly " and Hong Kong's " Ta Kung Fu ". Some domestic bad online media have also echoed and reprinted it. In fact, when the lies of the "ghost town" were spreading everywhere, the city of Kangbashi had already been operating normally. Although there are not many permanent residents and there are not many cars on the street, that is inevitable. The rumor-monger distributed pictures of the early stages of Kangbashi urban construction in the article, the open space in front of several major cultural buildings, and specially selected street scenes taken when there were no cars on the street, and forced this to be the scene at that time. This is extremely powerful for most people in China and even the world who have never been to Kangbashi. As a result, the Internet was filled with accusations, abuses and slander against Kangbashi. Not only those outside, but some locals also made fun of it, and even some were gloating. Such a public opinion atmosphere is indeed a headache for Ordos. Ordos paid a huge price to deal with these rumors, that is, to increase positive publicity efforts and hold various influential activities, such as The 10th National Traditional Ethnic Minority Sports Games , the 11th Asian Art Festival, the performance of the intangible cultural heritage of Chinese ethnic minorities , the 13th Conference of the Parties for the Prevention and Control of Desertification , the 7th Kubuqi International Desert Forum... and so on. On the other hand, it is to "extinguish the fire". Looking for those media to "set it down", it actually costs money. Some reporters have tasted the sweetness of writing negative reports. They are roaming around like mice and flies under the banner of so-called public opinion supervision, looking for so-called materials from administrative and public institutions and enterprises, and then adding fuel to the fire and even making up for sensationalism.Because local governments and enterprises are worried that these public opinions will have adverse effects, they will have to "put out the fire" once negative reports come out. My friend Zhang Bingyi and I were ordered to write positive reports for "fire extinguishing", and then published them in the Ta Kung Pao in the official name.

Zhang Bingyi and I were arranged to be in the VIP suite of Dongsheng Tienniu Hotel. We had all kinds of fruit plates, drinks and cigarettes, but we were under great pressure when facing various reference materials half a foot thick on the desk. The two of them kept smoking and smoked the room into a blue bowl, and they still couldn't start writing until late at night. Bingyi said, "Old Su, you are more expert than me in writing this style. I seem to be okay with writing novels." I said, "What an expert, I am also very nervous now! In fact, I think it's okay not to write this. Even if I write it out and publish it, not many people will read it. The effect is definitely not as good as the 'ghost city'." Bingyi said, "That's right." Then he said with a wicked smile, "Then we run away from the dog?" The two looked at each other and smiled bitterly. Three days later, we felt relieved and finally handed over the job.

This situation was not just Ordos, but almost all over the country. So some people made up such words to describe this phenomenon: society has three defenses: fire prevention, theft prevention, and journalists prevention. There is a folk saying: "Good things don't go out, bad things will turn to the city." It means that few people pay attention to good people and good things in society, and it is difficult to spread, while some bad things often spread quickly and far away. This may be considered a kind of folk psychology or a cultural phenomenon. This phenomenon is the same even now. People know much more about celebrity scandals than those outstanding scientists, workers, and the advanced deeds of the top 10 good people in China this year.

There is another old saying in China that brings blessings in disguise. Laozi The "Tao Te Ching" says: Misfortune is where good fortune is relied upon, and blessing is where bad fortune is concealed. Looking back now, Kangbashi became famous all over the world because of his "ghost city". In recent years, many foreigners have come to Kangbashi for travel, many of them just to see what the so-called ghost town looks like. They came, and the Kangbashi presented to them was a world of difference from the rumored Kangbashi!

They came to Kangbashi, got off the car, stretched out their sleepy limbs and waist while exclaiming: Wow—This is the legendary "ghost town"? Especially those young women, dressed in fashionable clothes, swirling their arms in place, and their colorful skirts whirled into a blooming flower. Looking up at the blue sky, the white clouds, the green trees and flowers around, the brand new and unique buildings, the Genghis Khan Square that can’t be seen at the end, the broad and stretching street, spreading its nose and breathing the fresh air of the fragrance of flowers and plants. Every cell in my body was excited. They called on their companions, relatives and friends, changed their positions and angles, and took photos in various exaggerated postures. The fatigue and sleepiness of the journey had already been thrown out of the sky. How could they bother to listen to the tour guide’s explanation! Yes, all the landscape in front of you, the refreshing feeling all over your body, and any description are pale.

Night is coming, Kangbashi has another different scenery, one tree and one flower on the street, one grass and one light on the road, the street lights are on, the neon lights of the tall buildings are on, the spotlights of the grass and flower ponds are on, colorful and changing like dreams. On the Ulanmulun River in the south of the city, the huge musical fountain was accompanied by the melody. Billions of swaying and colorful water columns rushed to the sky again and again, and water droplets scattered, splashing billions of bright diamonds on the water surface. The rhythm resonated with the heart rhythm, and the lights and eyes shone together. There are tens of thousands of people on the lake shore, and every gushing will arouse exclamations from the children. It is said that Kangbashi's music fountain is one of the few large music fountains in the world, and the giant group sculptures on Genghis Khan Square and the square are also one of the few squares and group sculptures in the world. Kangbashi is already a legendary contemporary myth.

Not only did I listen to my friends talking about traveling on the wine beach countless times, outsiders curiously asked them about the topic of "ghost town", but I have also had this experience several times. In September 2014, I was ill in Peking Union Medical College Hospital for chemotherapy. The patients in the same ward included Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi and Anhui. Every time, it is from a different province.When chatting on the hospital bed, the first sentence is naturally to ask each other where they are. Whenever I say I am from Ordos, Inner Mongolia, there is always a question asking me without exception: "Oh? Are you from Ordos? There is a ghost town there, what is it called?"

I said, "It's called Kangbashi."

"Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, Every time, I basically continue this topic in the same way.

I said, "I can't explain it clearly in a few words. I'll show you the photos." I showed him many photos on my phone. After seeing it, he said, "Such a beautiful city!" I said, "Yes, the landscape is not worse than the cities in , the population is not as large as other cities, because Inner Mongolia is not as large as Kangbashi has a history of only ten years. The population of any city is gradually increasing. Didn't Shenzhen also be a border town with a population of only more than 30,000 and more than ten streets?" After hearing what I said, they all agreed with me.

There is a patient from Shanghai. His son came to visit his father. The patient told his son that this uncle is from Ordos, and his family lives in Dongsheng , not far from the ghost city. The young man looked at me and said, "Is that so? I visited that ghost town last year, it's very beautiful! The streets are so spacious! The air is very good!" I asked him, are you on a trip? He said he was going to do business and went to see the ghost town by the way.

Now, people on earth know that Ordos is a rich treasure land located on the coal sea oil field, but many people may not know that Ordos is also a cultural hometown located on the ancient historical civilization. People only know that Kangbashi is a modern new city built on a desert. How could they know that there are ancient human ruins tens of thousands of years ago underground in Kangbashi. According to data, Ulanmulun Ruins is the abbreviation of the Ulanmulun Paleolithic Site in Yijinhuoluo Banner. It is located on the north bank of the Ulanmulun Landscape River in Kangbashi New District, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The site was discovered in May 2010 with a total area of 20,000 square meters and an altitude of 1,293 meters. Discovered in May 2010 and officially excavated in 2011. According to , the School of Urban and Environment, Peking University, the site dates from about 30,000 to 70,000 years ago, which belongs to the late Quaternary Pleistocene. At present, more than 4,200 artificial stone tools, more than 3,400 ancient animal fossils, as well as fire relics composed of a large number of ashes, charcoal, and burning bones. I suddenly had such a fantasy. Our distant ancestors actually saw this Feng Shui treasure land tens of thousands of years ago, where they cultivated their descendants. The memory gene code of our ancestors has been passed down to this day, making today's Ordos people still attached to this place in the dark. The Ordos people developed and built Kangbashi, and it turned out to be back to their hometown! The descendants of our ancestors are back and come back to rebuild their homes. They are a big move and extraordinary! Looking back at history, the extraordinary things in the world are successful when ordinary people think they are impossible. They are successful in many doubts, denials, criticisms, sieges, slander, curses and even encirclements. There are countless examples of this. Once successful, those mouths that doubt, deny, criticize, siege, slander, curse and even encircle are quietly closed. This is the old saying: lies are self-defeating. Today, the label of Kangbashi's "Ghost Town" disappeared, and I don't know where it flew to. Later I suddenly thought that today's Kangbashi is famous both at home and abroad, and some people call it Dubai in China. But she was much shorter than Dubai, which was a miracle. There is a Chinese idiom called "Magic Axe and Magical Art", and Kangbashi is a masterpiece of "Magic Axe and Magical Art". In this sense, the so-called "ghost city" is really worthy of its name.