Economic reforms in China have significantly changed both the processes of urban development and the practice of urban spatial planning. Changes in these aspects of urbanization, however, have not occurred in concert. The reassertion of planning as a profession has resulted in a reintroduction of a form of master planning, while the state's virtual monopoly over urban investment and decision making has steadily eroded. In Chinese cities, the practice of urban planning may have passed from irrelevance under the command economy of the past to gross ineffectiveness in the socialist market economy of today. In this paper I review major urban trends arising from Chinese economic reforms and discuss the problems and prospects of a planning response to these trends.
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