From Habitat III to the new urbanization agenda in China: Seeing through the practices of the “three old renewals” in Guangzhou

The continuing expansion of construction land at the cost of agricultural lands and natural resources has elicited considerable concern among scholars and policy makers. Habitat III sponsored by United Nations in 2016, encourages spatial development strategies of prioritizing urban renewal and highlights approaches using contextual urban planning and design, policies, rules and regulations to shape the New Urban Agenda for sustainable urbanization. Chinese government sets New-type Urbanization for promoting urban renewal. In respect of land use policy in a local context, the “three old renewals” practice underpins the pioneering movement by planners and decision-makers in Chinse cities (started from Guagnzhou city). This research selects three typical urban renewal cases in Guangzhou, China, namely, Shipai Village, Litchi Bay, and Huangbiancun Industrial Park, to investigate the transformation of the “three old”. Policies and processes of “three old renewals” differ from the previous “top-down” approach to property-led urban redevelopment projects, which requires local governments to incentivize different stakeholders with active involvement from the public to engage in urban redevelopment projects. Culture-driven creativity is a catalyst in designating the renewal of historical neighborhood areas and the micro-transformation approach is a good strategy for community rebuilding, which provides valuable lessons and experiences that can be borrowed for other cities in China or in other developing countries.