Ordos City

Etymology

The area had been administered under the Ih Ju League, also spelled Ikh Juu (Mongolian: ᠶᠡᠬᠡ ᠵᠤᠤ ᠠᠶᠢᠮᠠᠭ Yeke Juu ayimaγ; Chinese: 伊克昭盟; pinyin: Yīkèzhāo Méng) since the 17th century, and was redesignated a prefecture-level city and renamed to Ordos on 26 February 2001. "Ordos" means "palaces" in the Mongolian language. Ordos originally referred to a tribe belonging to the Yeke Juu (Ike Chao ‘great monastery’) league and later included the tribe’s area, hence the Ordos, or Ordus, the area within the big bend of the Yellow River. Mongolian ordu(n), ord ‘court, residence of a ruler; palace; camp’, also for 'camp bodyguards'. According to Ramstedt -s is a plural suffix; further: ordu, orda; Turkic orta ‘a center’; Mongolian > Turkish orda ‘camp’ > Hindi urdū > English "horde." The name is sometimes claimed to be related to the eight white yurts of Genghis Khan. Linguistically, the Ordos dialect of Mongolian is quite different from neighboring Chakhar Mongolian.

Geography and climate

Ordos's prefectural administrative region occupies 86,752 square kilometres (33,495 sq mi) and covers the bigger part of the Ordos Desert, although the urban area itself is relatively small. It borders the prefecture-level divisions of Hohhot to the east, Baotou to the northeast, Bayan Nur to the north, Alxa League to the northwest, Wuhai to the west, the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region to its southwest, and the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi to the south. The maximal north-south extent is 340 km (210 mi), while from east to west it stretches for 400 km (250 mi).

The area of Ordos Shi can roughly be divided into a hilly area in the east, high plateaus in the west and center, sandy deserts in the north and south, and plains at the southern bank of the Yellow River. The highest elevation, at 2,149 metres (7,051 ft), is located in the west, the lowest point, at 850 m (2,790 ft), is in the east.

There are two large deserts in the territory of Ordos Shi: Kubuqi Desert (库布其沙漠) in the north and the Maowusu Desert (毛乌素沙漠) in the south. The Kubuqi Desert occupies 19.2% of Ordos, or 16,600 km² (6,400 sq mi), while the Maowusu Desert takes up 28.8% of the area, or 25,000 km² (9,700 sq mi).

Ordos features a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), marked by long, cold and very dry winters; very warm, somewhat humid summers; and strong winds, especially in spring. The annual precipitation is 300 to 400 millimetres (11.8 to 15.7 in) in the eastern part of the city and 190 to 350 mm (7.5 to 13.8 in) in the western part. Most of the rain falls between July and September, with very little snow in winter; average annual evaporation reaches 2,000 to 3,000 mm (79 to 118 in). In the city proper, the monthly 24-hour average temperature ranges from −10.5 °C (13.1 °F) in January to 21.0 °C (69.8 °F) in July, while the annual mean is 6.16 °C (43.1 °F). Sunshine duration averages 2,700 to 3,200 hours annually.

Economy

Ordos is one of the most prosperous regions of China when measured by GDP figures. With a nominal per-capita GDP of US$25,239 in 2015, it ranks third among prefecture-level divisions in the entire Chinese mainland. It is extremely rich in natural resources, having one sixth of the national coal reserves. The pillars of its economy are textiles (wool), coal mining, petrochemicals, electricity generation, and production of building materials.

Administrative subdivisions

Ordos Shi is divided into two districts and seven banners:

Kangbashi New Area

A large, sparsely inhabited urban real estate development has been constructed 25 km (16 mi) from Dongsheng District. Intended to house a million people, it remains mostly uninhabited. Intended to have 300,000 residents by 2010, government figures stated it had 28,000. It has been the subject of several well publicized articles, including a fillustrated feature series conducted by Al Jazeera in 2010. The Daily Mail has documented Ordos/Kangbashi and other similar urban developments in China.

Ordos Museum

In 2011, a 49,400-square-meter museum, entitled Ordos Museum (Chinese: 鄂尔多斯博物馆), was opened in Kangbashi. The museum, designed by China-based architectural practice MAD Studio, focuses upon the history of the Ordos area, as well as on the culture and traditions of Inner Mongolia.

Transportation

Travel within Ordos City is primarily made by car or bus, using the city's network roads. Two tolled expressways, the G18 Rongcheng–Wuhai Expressway and the G65 Baotou–Maoming Expressway, provide connections with other towns and cities including Dongsheng.

There are no direct rail lines to the city. The closest is the Baoshen Line in Dongsheng.

Ordos Airport is to the south of the city.

Demographics

In the 2000 census, there were 1,369,766 inhabitants:

Most people come from the Shanxi province, 30 km South of this city.