Located in China’s northwestern badlands near the edge of Gobi Desert, Yumen was once a buzzing oil city with a peak population of 300,000. However, as oil output plummeted, the old residential district became abandoned and now is a rare example of China’s true ghost towns. The town’s history dates back to the early 20th-century, when the Kuomintang regime dispatched a group of geologists to China’s barren northwest to prospect for oil. In 1939, oil was discovered in Yumen. The first oil well of China was constructed here soon after. After Kuomintang’s loss…
