Ordos (Mongolian: Ordos; ), also known as Ih Ju, is one of the twelve major subdivisions of Inner Mongolia, China. It lies within the Ordos Plateau of the Yellow River. Although mainly rural, Ordos is administered as a prefecture-level city. Its population was 2,153,638 as of the 2020 census, and its built-up (or metro) area made up of Ejin Horo Banner and Kangbashi District was home to 366,779 inhabitants, as Dongsheng District (574,442 inhabitants) is not a conurbation yet. Ordos is known for its recently undertaken large scale government projects including most prominently the new Kangbashi District, an urban district planned as a massive civic mall with abundant monuments, cultural institutions and other showpiece architecture. It was the venue for the 2012 Miss World Final. When it was newly built, the streets of the new Kangbashi district did not have much activity, and the district was frequently described as a "ghost city" by several Western media outlets. However, by 2017, Kangbashi had become more populated with a resident population of 153,000 and around one-third of apartments occupied. In a Forbes article, Wade Shepard noted that "...of the 40,000 apartments that had been built in the new district since 2004, only 500 are still on the market, but it is not known if the apartments have been sold or just withdrawn from the market to bolster sagging prices. Etymology The area was known as the Ih Ju League, also spelled Ikh Juu () Yeke Juu ayimaγ; ), from 1649 to 2001. It was redesignated a prefecture-level city and renamed to Ordos on 26 February 2001. "Ordos" means "palaces" in the Mongolian language. "Ordos" originally referred to a tribe belonging to the Yeke Juu (Ike Chao ‘great monastery’, i.e. Ih Ju or Guanghui Monastery) league and later included the tribe's area, hence the Ordos, or Ordus, the area within the big bend of the Yellow River. Mongolian ordu(n), ord ‘court, residence of a ruler; palace; camp’, also for 'camp bodyguards'. According to Ramstedt -s is a plural suffix; further: ordu, orda; Turkic orta ‘a center’; Mongolian > Turkish orda ‘camp’ > Hindi urdū > English "horde." The name is sometimes claimed to be related to the eight white yurts of Genghis Khan. Linguistically, the Ordos dialect of Mongolian is quite different from neighboring Chakhar Mongolian. History Prehistoric civilization At the southern end of the Ordos grassland, there is a river originating from