Citizen Participation in Chinese Urban Planning: Learning from Shenyang and Qingdao

This article reviews two projects with citizen participation in China: the resource recovery project in Shenyang and Taidong facade renewal project in Qingdao. In Shenyang, the international experts' team motivated about 600 inhabitants to separate bioorganic garbage with satisfying result. In Qingdao, the cooperation between the government and the voluntary artists' organization effectively completed the facade renewal project of Taidong commercial area. These two projects are able to demonstrate that citizen participation helps improve the quality of Chinese urban space under present conditions, and that the push of the authority and the moderation of the specialists are the key factors for successfully integrating the strength of the citizens into planning practice.