Mapping China: Urbanisation - 9 The City Planners, Designers and Decision-Makers

The evolution of the current urban planning system in China has been an intricate process. At first it was deeply affected by the socialist planning theories generated in the Soviet Union to coordinate with a planned economy, and after the 1980s policy reforms largely transformed towards the free-market ideology. Still, in comparison to Western planning systems, the Chinese type features a hierarchical structure and a strong enforcement of governmental power.

The system thus endows the planners who directly work on government projects with a significant role in the shaping or reshaping of cities. Moreover, the unprecedented intensity of the urbanization in China over the past two or three decades has offered incomparable work opportunities for urban planners. Some of the most experienced planners in China claim that they had done more than 600 planning projects before the age of 50, a number unimaginable for planners elsewhere.

In order to understand the specialised role of urban planners and architects in the social and physical formation of cities in China, it is important to understand how planning documents are created and made official, how the players are coordinated for the purpose of city-making, and how the plans are implemented through government enforcement and other instruments.