Ordos is one of the twelve major subdivisions of Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia

Inner Mongolia is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, located in the northern region of the country. Inner Mongolia shares an international border with the countries of Mongolia and the Russian Federation...

, China. It is located within the Ordos Loop

Ordos Loop

The Ordos Loop is a region of China west of Beijing. The Yellow River flows north-northeast, then east, and then south forming three sides of an imperfect rectangle. The south side is formed by the Wei River which rises not far from the southwest corner and flows east to the southeast corner...

 of the Yellow River

Yellow River

The Yellow River or Huang He, formerly known as the Hwang Ho, is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into...

. Although mainly rural, Ordos is administered as a prefecture-level city

Prefecture-level city

A prefectural level city , prefectural city or prefectural level municipality is an administrative division of the People's Republic of China, ranking below a province and above a county in China's administrative structure. Prefectural level cities form the second level of the administrative...

. The administrative seat is at Dongsheng

Dongsheng District

Dongsheng District is a District and the seat of Ordos City, Inner Mongolia, People's Republic of China. It has a district population of 230,579, with 162,317 in the urban area. The district is predominantly Han Chinese, but has a significant Mongol minority....

.

The area had been administered as Yekhe Juu League since the 17th century, and was redesignated a prefecture-level city and renamed to Ordos on 26 February 2001.