On the morning of September 16th, a joint seminar between Unirule Research Centre for Urban Development and Fanhua Group on “China’s Urbanisation and Planning Innovation” was held in Beijing. Present at the seminar were Professor SHENG Hong, Director of Unirule; Mr. YANG Tianju, President and senior engineer of Fanhua Group; Mr. MA Jun, Director of Fanhua Group 5th Designing Unit; and Ms. QIAN Pu, Deputy Director of Unirule Research Centre for Urban Development. About 50 people from the media, academia, and the planning circles attended this seminar.

Mr. YANG Tianju spoke on “Innovation Model and Practice of Urban Development”. He reflected on the background of the reform in China, and the evolution of China’s peculiar urbanisation process by proposing the notion of “smart city”. Ms. ZHAO Peng spoke on “Innovative Thinking on Urban Spatial Planning in the New Era”. She used two cases, namely the Lijiang urban comprehensive planning, and the Caofeidian new town planning. She pointed out that, in the past, urban planning was mainly determined by the will of the government, i.e., government-led. And then as the development pattern of China changes over time, the urban planning should also evolve. Professor SHENG Hong gave a presentation on “Market, Spatial Economics, and Urban Planning”. He thought planning should follow the logics of the market mechanism which forecasts the future development trend of a city. This was the best planning method. Professor SHENG Hong also introduced the 10-D Spatial Simulation Planning Model(SSPM), which was an innovation of Unirule Institute of Economics.

The event closed with Q&A and heated discussion.