Ordos, Inner Mongolia. Ordos, meaning ‘many palaces’, is a completely new city with a futuristic museum built by star architect Ma Yansong. Arriving at the city at dusk in 2013 only a few lights were visible in a horizon of high rises. A gigantic trick fountain, operating once per month, was flushing lights and water, orchestrated by music echoing in the surrounding emptiness. Only a few visitors were watching the spectacle.

New ghost cities in China serve as the doorway to reveal the ever-growing scales and economic dimension of the neoliberal market in its most extreme. China, the rising power player of capitalism, is experiencing the most drastic changes in the sociocultural domain of everyday life, and is affecting all parts of our lives on a global scale.