Ordos; Mainland China’s Top GDP per Head, Coal and Genghis Khan’s Shrine

Coal gives Ordos the highest GDP per head of any mainland city, ¥272,704 in 2025. The city also built a “ghost city”, turned up the first Palaeolithic human fossil confirmed in mainland East Asia, and keeps the shrine of Genghis Khan.

煤炭让鄂尔多斯成为内地人均地区生产总值最高的城市,二零二五年为二十七点二七万元。这座城市还建起了一座”鬼城”,出土了东亚大陆首次确认的旧石器时代人类化石,并供奉着成吉思汗的陵寝。

In Sohu’s 2025 ranking of cities by GDP per head, only Macao and Hong Kong stood above Ordos, and both are special administrative regions with their own accounts. Karamay, Beijing and Shanghai came below it, and Tencent News also puts Karamay second among prefecture-level cities, behind Ordos. The city’s own figure fell at current prices, from ¥285,338 in 2024 to ¥272,704, though it rose 4.3 percent at constant prices, according to its communiqués.

据搜狐的二零二五年城市人均GDP排名,只有澳门和香港排在鄂尔多斯之上,而这两地都是有各自核算体系的特别行政区;克拉玛依、北京和上海都排在它之后。腾讯新闻也把克拉玛依列为全国地级行政区的第二名,仅次于鄂尔多斯。据该市的统计公报,它的人均GDP按现价计算从二零二四年的二十八万五千三百三十八元降到二十七万二千七百零四元,按不变价计算则增长百分之四点三。

The reason is under the ground. Ordos holds one-sixth of China’s proven coal reserves and one-third of its proven natural gas, according to the city government. Xinhua counts 320 mines over coal that lies beneath about 70 percent of the territory. Secondary industry, which includes mining, made up 68.1 percent of the city’s 2025 output of ¥612.22 billion, according to the communiqué. The larger mines produced 889.72 million tonnes that year, down 0.8 percent, or more than 18 percent of China’s coal, according to China Energy Net.

原因在地下。据市政府介绍,鄂尔多斯的煤炭和天然气探明储量分别占全国的六分之一和三分之一。据新华网介绍,全市有三百二十座煤矿,煤层埋在约百分之七十的国土之下。据统计公报,第二产业(含采矿业)占二零二五年全市六千一百二十二点二亿元产出的百分之六十八点一。规模以上煤矿当年产煤八亿八千九百七十二万吨,下降百分之零点八;据中国能源网介绍,占全国煤炭产量的百分之十八以上。

Kangbashi went up on wasteland from 2004, planned for a million people. When its facilities opened in 2009, about 30,000 lived there, according to Xinhua. Time called it in 2010 “a new Chinese city that, apart from people, has everything”, according to The China Story.

康巴什从二零零四年起在荒地上动工,规划容纳一百万人。据新华社介绍,二零零九年设施启用时,住在那里的约有三万人。据《中国故事》介绍,《时代》周刊二零一零年称它是”一座除了人以外什么都有的中国新城”。

The label has been harder to apply since. The district reported 153,000 residents in May 2017, with no more than 500 of the 40,000 flats built since 2004 left unsold, according to Xinhua. The 2020 census counted 118,796, according to the bulletin as compiled by Hongheiku, and the district’s communiqué gave 131,300 for the end of 2024. The figures may not cover the same area or use the same count, but none of them comes near a million.

此后这个标签越来越难贴。据新华社介绍,到二零一七年五月,该区报告常住人口十五点三万人,二零零四年以来建成的四万套住房未售出的不超过五百套。据红黑统计公报库整理的人口普查公报,二零二零年普查为十一万八千七百九十六人;据该区统计公报,二零二四年末为十三点一三万人。这些数字覆盖的范围和统计口径未必相同,但没有一个接近一百万。

In August 2012 the Miss World final was held in Ordos and won by China’s Yu Wenxia, according to People’s Daily.

据人民网介绍,二零一二年八月世界小姐总决赛在鄂尔多斯举行,中国选手于文霞夺冠。

Ejin Horo, the banner south of Kangbashi, means “the lord’s mausoleum” in Mongolian, according to Ctrip, and it holds the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan. His actual burial place remains unknown. He died in 1227 during the campaign against the Western Xia, and Mongol burials were kept secret, according to Tongcheng Travel. The ceremonial mausoleum centres on eight white tents associated with his relics, which Mongols regard as the place where his soul returned, according to Tongcheng Travel and Ctrip.

据携程介绍,康巴什以南的伊金霍洛旗,在蒙古语里意为”圣主的陵园”,成吉思汗陵就在这里。他的真正葬地至今仍是未解之谜。据同程旅游介绍,他一二二七年在攻打西夏时去世,蒙古人实行秘葬。据同程旅游和携程介绍,成吉思汗陵以八座白色宫帐为中心,宫帐里供奉着与他相关的遗物,蒙古人视之为他灵魂归来之地。

A legend retold on Zhihu says he dropped his whip here in 1226 and took it as the place where he would rest. A tuft of camel hair said to have absorbed his last breath is kept inside, according to Sohu, and Darhad Mongols have guarded the shrine for some 800 years. The shrine itself has travelled. Taken to Ta’er Temple in Qinghai in 1949, it returned to Ejin Horo in 1954, according to Sohu.

据知乎转述的传说,一二二六年他在此处掉落马鞭,认为这里是自己身后的安息之地。据搜狐介绍,陵中供奉着一撮据说吸收了他最后一口气的驼毛,达尔扈特人守护了它约八百年。这座陵寝也曾几经迁移。据搜狐介绍,一九四九年它被迁到青海塔尔寺,一九五四年迁回伊金霍洛。

The Yellow River wraps three sides of the Ordos plateau, and the name means “many palaces” in Mongolian, according to Baidu Baike. The city government describes an alluvial plain in the north, hills in the east, the Kubuqi Desert and Mu Us Sandy Land in the centre and south, and an undulating plateau in the west.

据百度百科介绍,黄河环绕鄂尔多斯高原三面,”鄂尔多斯”在蒙古语里是”众多的宫帐”。据市政府介绍,北部是冲积平原,东部是丘陵沟壑,中南部是库布其沙漠和毛乌素沙地,西部是坡状高原。

In 1922 the French Jesuit Émile Licent found a site on the Salawusu River in Uxin Banner, and in 1923 he and Teilhard de Chardin dug out about 200 stone tools there, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Guangming Daily. Only when sorting the finds did they notice a child’s upper incisor among antelope teeth and fragments of ostrich eggshell, according to the Institute. Davidson Black named it the Ordos tooth, and it was published in 1927. According to Xinhua it was the first Palaeolithic human fossil confirmed on the East Asian mainland, and its owner lived between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago. He was a boy of seven or eight, according to Tencent News.

据中国科学院古脊椎动物与古人类研究所和光明网介绍,一九二二年法国耶稣会士桑志华在乌审旗萨拉乌苏河发现一处遗址,一九二三年他与德日进在那里发掘出约二百件石器。据该研究所介绍,直到整理出土材料时,他们才在一堆羚羊牙齿和鸵鸟蛋片中注意到一枚儿童的上门齿。步达生把它命名为”鄂尔多斯牙齿”,一九二七年发表。据新华网介绍,这是东亚大陆首次确认的旧石器时代人类化石,它的主人生活在十万至五万年前。据腾讯新闻介绍,那是一个七八岁的男孩。

The fast way to Beijing is to change at Hohhot East. Ordos station sits on the Hohhot–Zhungeer–Ordos line, which opened on 31 December 2017 and has carried EMU trains since April 2018, according to the China Railway Network. Fuxing high-speed trains cannot run on it because the line is of a lower class, according to The Paper, so the journey comes in two parts.

去北京最快的办法,是在呼和浩特东站换乘。据中国铁路网介绍,鄂尔多斯站位于呼准鄂铁路上,这条铁路二零一七年十二月三十一日通车,二零一八年四月起开行动车组列车。据澎湃新闻介绍,复兴号高铁不能在这条线上运行,因为线路等级较低,所以行程要分两段走。

An EMU covers the 248 kilometres to Hohhot East in about two hours twenty minutes, according to gaotie.com.cn. On one day in October 2026 the quickest connection left Ordos at 13.37, reached Hohhot East at 15.57, and after 25 minutes caught the G2472 to Beijing North at 18.31, 4 hours 54 minutes in all and ¥287 in second class, according to Ctrip. A morning pair, the C650 at 07.09 and the G2462 at 10.00, arrives at 12.09. The overnight K90 from Ordos to Beijing Fengtai takes 12 hours 38 minutes, according to Ctrip.

据高铁旅行网介绍,动车组跑完到呼和浩特东站的二百四十八公里,约需两小时二十分钟。据携程介绍,二零二六年十月的某一天,最快的接驳方案是十三点三十七分从鄂尔多斯出发,十五点五十七分到呼和浩特东,等二十五分钟后换乘G2472次,十八点三十一分到北京北,全程四小时五十四分,二等座共二百八十七元。上午的一组是七点零九分的C650次接十点整的G2462次,十二点零九分到达。据携程介绍,夜间的K90次从鄂尔多斯到北京丰台要十二小时三十八分。

The airport lies 13 kilometres from Kangbashi and 37 from Dongsheng, according to Ctrip.

据携程介绍,机场距康巴什十三公里,距东胜三十七公里。

According to the China Railway Network, the line from Hohhot crosses the Yellow River before it reaches Ordos station.

据中国铁路网介绍,从呼和浩特开来的铁路先跨过黄河,再抵达鄂尔多斯站。