Why it looks like this

The 'blue city' (that is what Hohhot means in Mongolian) was founded by Altan Khan in the 16th century and filled with Tibetan Buddhist temples — the old town's lanes still wind between Dazhao and other monasteries.

In 1737 the Qing empire built a separate walled garrison city, Suiyuan, to the northeast to watch over the frontier. For two centuries the twin towns faced each other across open ground; the modern capital of Inner Mongolia grew by filling the space between and around them.