The Creepy Beauty of China's Totally Uninhabited Cities

Around China, there are dozens of housing projects that were constructed during their housing boom and never totally completed. Some were left unfinished with walls half up and no windows installed while others were finished but never moved into. While this happened a little bit in the U.S. during the recession, China's empty locales are particularly striking because whole cities, including shopping malls and local attractions, are left empty, leaving the areas to look like they are sets for a new post-apocalyptic film.

These images seem to depict abandoned cities, but the reality is that a place must first be used in order to be abandoned. Most of China's ghost cities never even had residents to start with. While the photos of these places seem creepy, they are also strikingly beautiful in a way, showing what happens when overly-ambitious developers push through projects without any potential customers in line to buy their creations.

Check out more of these amazing images over at io9.