My Abandoned Oil Town Became a Top-Tier City

What's it like to own an abandoned oil town in the West? Xu Xing originally just wanted to make life easier for road-trippers and camping enthusiasts exploring the Northwest.

But then things snowballed...

A roadside stall became a distinctive convenience store. A clay stove for cooking instant noodles became a restaurant serving steaming bowls of authentic beef noodles. A shack became a one-of-a-kind hotel in China where guests could gaze up at the deep, starry sky. A tire-repair spot expanded into a gas station and auto shop...

Later on,

Before anyone knew it, the town had grown to the size of a small county seat... from a sixth-tier city to a fifth-tier, fourth-tier, and then third-tier city... Years later, it had become the only new first-tier city in the Northwest's Gobi Desert…