I've always been interested in ghost towns. When I was a kid, my dad took me to a few old mining ghost towns in the deserts of Arizona. I really love old buildings; they have this quiet presence--as if someone or something is watching you. It's as if all the people and events that once occupied the place left an imprint.

So anyways, I was doing some internet browsing and reading and I stumbled upon a bunch of articles and Google map images of Ordos, China. A huge modern city that could house millions, yet only about a hundred live there. I read that they mysteriously continue to build and finish structures within despite the lack of occupants.

There were multiple theories on the whole phenomenon. My favorite is that the city is being built as a safe place, away from the coast where people can be moved to in case of a catastrophe. Or maybe a catastrophe is already being planned? Who knows. Maybe it is as boring as a "real estate bubble". It just doesn't really make a ton of sense why they would build a huge, modern city in basically the middle of nowhere. And it appears Ordos isn't the only modern ghost town in China. Some estimates put the number of empty homes at as many as 64 million, with up to 20 new cities being built every year in the country's vast swathes of free land. Kind of interesting, huh?