Ordos became briefly famous around 2010 as China's most spectacular ghost city — a gleaming new administrative district called Kangbashi, built from scratch in the middle of the desert to house a million people, which stood nearly empty for years after completion. The ghost city narrative has aged: Kangbashi has since filled in, with schools, shops, and residents gradually arriving to inhabit its wide boulevards and monumental public buildings. The Ordos Museum, designed by MAD Architects in a spectacular polished steel building, is the district's architectural highlight.
The more compelling reason to come to Ordos is the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan, located 55 kilometres south of Dongsheng (the older, livelier city district). The mausoleum is not, scholars generally agree, the actual burial site — that is somewhere in the Mongolian heartland and has never been found. But the complex serves as a major place of worship for ethnic Mongolians, who have maintained it for centuries as a centre of ritual and cultural memory. The architecture is striking: three yurt-shaped domes with yellow and blue tiles, set in open steppe.
The Kubuqi Desert, China's seventh largest, is accessible from Ordos and offers more authentic desert experiences than some of the heavily developed dune parks near Baotou. The quieter stretches of the Kubuqi are accessible on horseback or camel, and the dunes at sunset are genuinely impressive. The Ordos cashmere industry — the Erdos brand originated here — means high-quality cashmere products are cheaper and more varied in the city's shops than almost anywhere else in China.
Ordos has an airport (code DSN) with multiple daily flights to Beijing and connections to Shanghai. The railway station, opened in 2016, connects to Baotou in about two hours and Hohhot in two to five hours. The split between Dongsheng, Kangbashi, and the outlying areas means a hire car or taxi is the practical way to get around; local buses connect the main districts but not on schedules useful to visitors.