Introduction

This was the place where Genghis Khan sprang from to conquer a large part of the world. China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region will make a quantum leap in its urban development over the next decade. The driving force behind this development is the exploitation of its copious of resources. Today China is investing highly in its energy development and the central government has listed optimizing the structure of China’s energy resources as "the priority among priorities." The website China.org explained the situation as follows; “Currently coal and oil products from the Ordos Basin have played an important role in China's economic development. The basin is now providing 4.75 billion cubic meters of natural gas to 15 large and medium-sized cities including Beijing and Tianjin. Natural gas will also be pumped to cities along the eastern coast such as Shanghai and Nanjing starting this October.”1 Today the first signs of this economic development can already be seen, with the opening of the Ordos Airport toward the end of 2007. The airport is China's first private-run airport with a total investment of RMB200 million featuring a 2,400-meter-long runway and terminals covering 3,500 to 5,000 sq meters. As most of China's urban development happens by adding plans to existing cities, Ordos is a rather unique case as its urban growth is being fuelled by resources. The rise of its GDP per inhabitant last year surpassed that of Beijing.