Planning Beijing: socialist city, transitional city, and global city

Abstract

Cities are centers of economic, social, and political change, and urban planning is a process responding to and guiding urban change and development. In the Maoist era and under the influence of socialist ideology, China limited urbanization while promoting industrialization, and urban planning served as an instrument for socialist construction. Since the reform of the late 1970s, Chinese cities have experienced unprecedented growth and restructuring. However, the gradualist, exploratory reform—exemplified by Deng Xiaoping’s slogan “crossing the river by feeling the stones”—makes Chinese cities constantly change without clear directions for future development. This paper uses Beijing as a case study to analyze changing institutional and global contexts underlying the transformation of Chinese cities, and planners’ responses and dilemmas in making plans and implementing them. We found that market reforms, rapid growth, and dramatic change make urban master plans quickly out of date, forcing Chinese planners to frequently revise these master plans. We also found that the content of urban master planning in China has broadened from physical planning, and Chinese planning has adapted to market reform through utilizing concepts of visioning, flexibility, and governance. Increasingly what we call a “hybrid” form of planning is arising in which global concepts and Chinese ideas interweave in order to direct the shape and form of the Chinese metropolis.

Keywords:

• urban master plan
• socialist city
• transitional city
• global city
• Beijing
• hybridicity

Acknowledgment

We would like to thank comments of the referees, Hongmian Gong, Deborah Martin, and Maureen Clark, and the research assistance of Jing Guo, Xiaohui Yuan, and Haifeng Liao.

Additional information

Funding

We would like to acknowledge the funding of Beijing Philosophy and Social Science Planning Project [grant number 11CSA003] and Chinese Ministry of Education [grant number 11JJDZH005].