Altan Xire (sometimes rendered as Altanshiree, Atengxilian or Aletengxire; , mn, Алтанширээ) is a town in and the county seat of
Ejin Horo Banner
The Ejin Horo Banner, also known as Ejin Horo Qi or Yijinhuoluo County, is a banner in Ordos City in southwestern Inner Mongolia, China. It borders Shaanxi Province to the southeast. As of 2009, the Ejin Horo Banner covers an area of almost , w ...
,
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
. Although administratively the chief town of a rural county, Altan Xire is highly urbanized with a skyscraper-filled
central business district
A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...
worthy of a large metropolis.
History
Starting in the early 2000s, a coal boom in the region provided the local government with ample tax revenue, propelling forward lavish development projects.
The government of Ejin Horo Banner utilized its windfall to rebuild its main township of Altan Xire.
The build up area of the township was expanded from on the back of 48 billion
RMB
The renminbi (; symbol: ¥; ISO code: CNY; abbreviation: RMB) is the official currency of the People's Republic of China and one of the world's most traded currencies, ranking as the fifth most traded currency in the world as of April 2022. ...
in spending by 2011.
The most lavish of these developments was the construction of 100 high rises for housing for civil servants.
In commercial development, an entire skyline was added with the construction of the Cathay Pacific Plaza complex of office towers in 2014.
Geography
The town sits on the south bank of the
Wulan Mulun River
Ulan or Wulan ( Mongolian: ; ; ) is a county of Qinghai Province, China. It is under the administration of Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture
Haixi Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture (; mn, ᠬᠠᠶᠢᠰᠢ ᠶᠢᠨ ...
, a tributary of the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...
. On the north bank of the same river is
Kangbashi District, known worldwide as a "ghost city" due to the large ceremonial mall area replete with huge monuments and civic buildings but not much human activity.
As an adjacent urban area with much of area's housing stock, Altan Xire can be considered an extension of Kangbashi that has organically grown into a bustling city while Kangbashi still lacks liveliness.
Economy
The town skyline includes Cathay Pacific Plaza, an office complex with six office towers taller than .
The tallest two towers are Cathay Pacific Plaza 1 and Cathay Pacific Plaza 2, both tall.
According to the
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH) is an international body in the field of tall buildings and sustainable urban design. A non-profit organization based at the Monroe Building in the city of Chicago, Illinois, United States ...
, the town ranks 172nd among all cities in number of buildings taller than .
References
{{reflist, 30em
Populated places in Inner Mongolia