Business life stirring in those 'ghost' cities

It is home to HSBC, Bank of East Asia and Standard Chartered as well as insurance, leasing and futures trading companies－the last building on Zhengzhou's reputation as an agricultural futures trading center in commodities such as wheat, which dates back to the 1990s.

Wei Zhigang, chief of the financial services bureau of the Zhengdong New District Administrative Committee, said the plan is for Zhengdong to be not only a regional financial services hub but also an international one.

"Henan is already on the map because of the Belt and Road Initiative, but we are going to be increasingly a center for international trade. In addition to international cargo flights, it is also possible to transport goods by rail to Hamburg in 15 days," he said.

One domestic bank that has its regional headquarters in Zhengdong is Zhongyuan Bank, the largest provincial-level commercial bank in China.

Hao Jingtao, the bank's regional executive vice-president, said he believed creating a new district with a financial center was exactly what the region needed.

He pointed out the district's financial institutions have already pledged 300 billion yuan ($48.9 billion) to companies across the province over the next five years.

"It is developing to serve the needs of the whole region. With its green areas, its lakes, arts center, hospitals and schools, it is a great place to work," he said.

New districts such as Zhengdong, far from being vanity projects, as some have suggested, are a continuation of an urban development model that began in the 1990s.

The most high-profile example is the development of Pudong on the west bank of the Huangpu River in Shanghai in 1993.

What was then farmland is now home to China's main financial center with iconic skyscrapers such as the Shanghai World Financial Center and the Oriental Pearl Tower.