Learning Process of Chinese Urban Planning: The Case of Xiamen's City Comprehensive Plan

Devolution, globalisation, and marketisation have made Chinese municipalities key players in urban development and construction, policy makers for increasing competitiveness, and stakeholders in the process of local social and economic development. These changes have greatly affected Chinese urban planning, which was initiated in the centrally planned economy. In this paper I attempt an exploration of the underlying concepts of Chinese planning and its approaches for coping with uncertainties within the new social and economic contexts in practice. Xiamen, one of the special economic zones in China, first confronted the concepts of the market economy in development. I select Xiamen as a case study to assess and to illustrate existing Chinese planning to aid the market economy learning process. I find that different planning approaches have been applied by local politicians and planners to cope with the changes.