Collaborative approaches for planning the rural areas of Chinese cities

The rapid urbanization process in China has posed significant threats to land resources not only in quantity but also in quality. In the peri-urban areas of Chinese cities, the pressures from urban sprawl have resulted in scattered construction lands mixed with cultivated lands. This highly inefficient use of rural construction, especially in peri-urban areas, has been identified as a major problem and, consequently, rural land consolidation has been increasingly considered as a priority for reaching more sustainable rural planning outcomes. Based on the existing experiences of land ticket reform, this chapter argues that market-based land ticket represents a promising approach to China’s rural land consolidation practises and should be allowed to be used in a wider scope. However, reform of the existing land ticket and rural land consolidation processes is also needed to ensure better results. A perspective from participative and collaborative planning will shed light on how to achieve this outcome.