The “ghost neighborhood” phenomenon in China—geographic locations and intra-urban spatial patterns

The phenomenon of “ghost cities” in China has attracted much attention in the past decade. However, the exact areal extents, specific spatial characteristics and economic development conditions of this phenomenon have been rarely investigated and recorded at intra-urban scale throughout China. Against this background, we base our study on a recently published “ghost neighborhood” map of entire China, and we analyze their geographic locations using multiple spatial metrics and categorization approaches at an intra-urban scale. The main results are as follows: 1) we categorize “ghost neighborhoods” into seven representative intra-urban pattern types across China; 2) the newly built “ghost neighborhoods” (after 2001) are mainly concentrated in thriving cities, while a small number of old “ghost neighborhoods” (before 2000) are found in resource depleted areas, that is, in cities of decline; 3) the newly built “ghost neighborhoods” are generally located at the urban edge, far away from city centers, while old “ghost neighborhoods” are found within the built-up area and spatially closer to city centers. Additionally, we relate general processes of urbanization in China with the representative types of “ghost neighborhoods.”