The City Planning Law of 1989 gave reform-era China its first national statutory framework for urban planning, defining the master-plan and detailed-plan hierarchy and the permit system for construction. It re-established planning as a legal instrument after the disruptions of the Maoist decades and the early reform building rush. The law was substantially superseded by the 2008 Urban and Rural Planning Law, which extended statutory planning across the rural-urban boundary. Together they formalised the planning permissions that govern Chinese development.
It re-founded Chinese urban planning as law, setting the plan hierarchy and permit regime that shaped a generation of city growth.
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