RIDING THE CLOUD

Twenty km south of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region’s capital, Hohhot, the grassland is surging with computer power. Located out here on the open steppe is the Big Data and Cloud Computing Information Park, home to 10,000 Internet data center (IDC) racks that operate around the clock.

The center was built in 2015 by China Unicom, one of the country’s major telecom operators, and has attracted more than 100 tenants, including government departments, well-known international cloud computing providers, large Internet firms, banks and insurance companies.

“The annual mean temperature of Hohhot is 8 degrees Celsius, and natural cooling sources can be used here for about five months every, adding that through using innovative cooling methods, the company saves approximately 5 million kWh of electricity each year.