Three years after the plunge in the price of coal ended the boom years for Erdos, a city in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, the aftermath could still be felt in every corner of the city: skyscrapers stood vacant and few cars waited at intersections for the traffic lights to change. The extravagance of the avant-garde buildings seemed only to serve as a reminder of those exuberant times.

The city, well-known with-in China as being a "ghost city" and a byword for "indebtedness", is much more than that. It is the location of the mausoleum of Genghis Khan. It owns well-preserved examples of the Mongol nomadic culture. It has vast grasslands as well as desert.

Donglian Holding Group, based in Erdos, aimed to make best use of these resources. It was not a sudden idea that came after the music stopped playing for the coal industry. The company had started on its alternative path well before the boom years from 2006 to 2011.