Wuhan is an ancient city with a history of 3500 years that can be traced back to Panlong Town, the military fortified point for Shang Dynasty to conquer the South. It originated from the military fastness, thrived in shipping commerce, prospered in modern industry and commerce and flourished in contemporary industry. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, Wuchang and Hanyang were set up. In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasty, Hankou became one of the “four famous towns in China”. In 1927, three towns--Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang were integrated into one, named “Wuhan” and served as a temporary capital of the Early Republic of China. After the founding of the PRC, as the central city in Central China, Wuhan ranked in the top 10 in terms of comprehensive competitiveness.

　　The practice of modern urban planning in Wuhan began in the late Qing Dynasty.

　　(Ⅰ) Urban planning of Wuhan during the period of national capitalism

　　In the late Qing Dynasty, with the opening of Hankou port and Zhang Zhidong launching Westernization Movement in Wuhan, western urban construction concept and planning thought began to be introduced into Wuhan and took an initial shape. After the Revolution of 1911, guided by the General Plan of Founding the State proposed by Mr. Sun Yat-sen, the development planning for Three Towns of Wuhan has been repeatedly updated and the pattern has taken shape.

　　1. Zhang Zhidong was the pioneer of the urban planning of Wuhan

　　In the late Qing Dynasty, there were similar planning drawings in some areas of Wuhan. For example, in 1883, Hubei Rehabilitation Bureau printed the General Drawing of Inner and Outer Streets of Hubei: the roads were streets or lanes; there were 18 streets inside the city and 4 pairs outside.

　　Wuhan urban planning in the true sense was first put forward by Zhang Zhidong. In 1889, Zhang Zhidong served as the governor-general of Hu-Guang and he believed that China was not poor in health but in talents, so establishing schools was the most important task for looking for talents and governing the country. Therefore, modern urban planning thought and western industrial development theory were introduced to further promote the Westernization Movement and set up modern education, national industry, water conservancy projects and traffic facilities. The introduction of western modern urban planning methods laid the foundation for the functional zoning of the three towns—constructing the dike, expanding urban space and building the traffic network radiating to the surrounding areas.

　　2. Sun Yat-sen proposed the planning goal of Wuhan’s Centennial Development in the General Plan of Founding the State.

　　After the success of the Revolution of 1911, Sun Yat-sen was highly bullish on Wuhan,—“a place to rise in rolt firstlythe first merit place” and he thought Three Towns of Wuhan was located in Central Plains, boasting superior geographical position, developed trade and business and especially the spirit of “Dare for the World First”. To this end, in the General Plan of Founding the State, Sun Yat-sen prepared the development planning for Wuhan personally.

　　It is imperative to establish the urban development goal with a great foresight. Sun Yat-sen defined Wuhan as the most important industrial and commercial city in China, the trade center of Central and Western China, the shipping destination city in China, the center of China’s railway system and the only port for inland transportation. “It is bound to be one of the largest cities in the world. So the future plan for Wuhan’s development scale will be defined as large as New York and London”. Besides, he speculated that, after the industrialization, the population would grow to 4 or 5 million. Sun Yat-sen further divided the function of Three Towns of Wuhan: Wuchang was a political and cultural city, Hankou an industrial and commercial city and Hanyang a garden residential city; and prepared the Hankou Public Building Program in 1923.

　　3. Metropolitan planning framework of Wuhan conceived during the republican period

　　After the failure of the Great Revolution, the National Government moved the capital to Wuhan on January 1, 1927,; on April 13th, it ordered the combination of the three towns—Wuchang, Hankou and Hanyang, and set up Wuhan City. Until the Anti-Japanese War, Wuhan gained 10 years of golden development and made many rounds of urban planning for Hankou or Wuchang or the three towns.

　　Namely, Design Guideline for Wuhan Special City in 1929, Hankou Urban Planning in Twenty-five Years of the Republic of China in 1936, Draft Plan for Construction of Greater Wuhan in 1944 and Land Use and Transportation System Planning Compendium for Three Towns of Wuhan in 1947.

　　In this period, some regional and special programs were also made. Such as, Project Plan of Wuhan City in 1929, Street Improvement Program in Old Downtown Area of Hankou in 1930, All Concrete Plans for Wuchang Municipal Works in Nineteen Years of the Republic of China in 1930, Compendium of Municipal Construction Plans of the Provincial Capital of Hubei in 1935 and New Hankou Construction Plan in 1947.

　　4. Summary

　　(1) The main idea of urban planning

　　At this stage of urban planning, Wuhan introduced and learned the thoughts and theories of western modern urban planning, proposed the long-term goal of building Wuhan into an international metropolis and divided the city function at the three towns level with great vision, and thus the layout of modern industrial space was rising up, so was a crossed-shaped regional transportation network radiating from Wuhan, establishing the prototype and framework for a metropolis.

　　(2) The role of urban planning

　　Urban planning in this period mainly promoted the transformation of Wuhan’s economy from the agricultural leading industry to the initial stage of industrialization:

　　Firstly, based on the transportation advantage of Thoroughfare to Nine Provinces, Wuhan attached great importance to and vigorously developed the industry and commerce and gathered considerable economic strength and urban radiation force;

　　Secondly, it established a high urban position in the national development pattern and became the national transportation hub and industrial and commercial center at the time;

　　Thirdly, in order to adapt to the traffic patterns and characteristics of urban water transport, industrial and warehousing facilities were arranged along the river, then a riparian zone shaped urban spatial pattern and a road network system paralleling with the river were established;

　　Fourthly, a far-sighted flood control system was built in the South and North of the Yangtze River, providing a broad hinterland for the future development of Wuchang and Hankou;

　　Fifthly, the urban functional zoning basically laid the foundation for coordination and distribution of labor of the three towns.

　　(Ⅱ)Urban planning of Wuhan during the socialist planned economy period

　　After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the urban construction of Wuhan was on the right track. After the comprehensive study on the Soviet Union’s urban planning model and adaptation to the planned development of the national economy, Wuhan entered the modern urban planning process.

　　1. Urban planning at the beginning of liberation laid the foundation for industrial development in Wuhan

　　At the beginning of the liberation, many things in Wuhan were waiting to be done. The state proposed changing the function of Wuhan from a consumer-city to an industrial city. A series of general plans were prepared based on the development of an industrial economy.

　　In 1953, Urban Planning Draft of Wuhan was prepared. In order to implement the First Five-year Plan of National Economy Development and guide the construction of the city, promoting the production and facilitating life, Urban Planning Sketch of Wuhan chaired by Bao Ding came into being. The Municipal People’s Government reported it to the Central South Administrative Committee for review and instruction and then to the State Planning Commission of the Central People’s Government for examination.

　　In 1954, Urban Master Plan of Wuhan was compiled. The state decided to build large-scale modern chemical plants, like Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Company, Qingshan Thermal Power Plant and Wuhan Heavy Duty Machine Tool Group Corporation; followed by Meat Processing Factory, Wuhan Boiler Works, Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry, Yangtze River Bridge and the Printing and Dyeing Mill from Shanghai. Thereupon, Urban Master Plan of Wuhan took shape with reference to the planning experience of Soviet in 1954. In November 1955, the planning was adjusted according to instructions of the State Council on being diligent and thrifty and reported to the State Construction Commission after the review by provincial and municipal governments.

　　2. Urban planning in the 1950s created an integrated and group-based development pattern

　　In 1956, Twelve-Year-Planning for Wuhan Construction was prepared. Due to the increase of national construction projects in Wuhan, the agricultural development required the corresponding development of local industries and the improvement of life quality, so the city construction should be planned generally. Hence, of the Twelve-Year-Planning (from 1956 to 1967) for Wuhan Construction was prepared and reported to Wuhan Municipal Committee for approval.

　　In 1959, Urban Construction Plan of Wuhan (Revised Draft) was compiled. During the Second Five-Year Plan, under the background of Great Leap Forward, Wuhan proposed the so called “200-Item” industrial construction plan and re-compiled the urban construction planning accordingly. In the wake of the substantial compression of industrial projects, in 1959, it saw the re-compilation of Urban Construction Plan of Wuhan (Revised Draft) and was submitted to Wuhan Municipal Committee for approval and execution. The Planning thought Wuhan would become an industrial base of steel, machinery and chemical, a base of science and technology, culture and education and a traffic hub as well, thus playing an important role in the technical support and economic cooperation for the development of industry and agriculture in Hubei Province and Central China Collaboration Area.

　　3. Summary

　　(1) The main idea of urban planning

　　In an era of socialist planned economy, Wuhan mainly followed the urban planning thought of the former Soviet Union in city construction by making industrial development the focus of city work. According to the requirements of planned economy, it intensified functional zoning and industrial layout, underlined the construction of infrastructure, formed the group based urban layout and initially established the development idea of integrating the three towns.

　　(2) The role of urban planning

　　In this period, guided by the planned economy, the urban development showed new characteristics: firstly, with the construction of a large number of industrial projects, a complete Wuhan industrial system took shape, laying the foundation for the modern manufacturing industry development; secondly, it intensified the urban function zoning and the group-based layout became obvious; thirdly, as the construction of cross-river bridges and rail networks, urban traffic mode was changed from water transport to railways and highways, and the urban space was expanded from riverside to space along important arteries; fourthly, Wuhan held a prominent position in China and its strength was enhanced: its industrial output ranked fourth, following Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.

　　(Ⅲ)Urban planning of Wuhan during the socialist market economic reform period

　　By the end of Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, Wuhan drew lessons of one-sided emphasis on industrialization which led to the imbalance of the national economy from the past economic development and began to be guided by building a multifunctional and integrated central city.

　　1. Urban planning at the beginning of the reform intensified the service industry status of Wuhan

　　(1) Urban Master Planning of Wuhan in 1982

　　In 1980s, in order to implement the spirit of the third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee to develop the “planned commodity economy” based on the thought of “Planned Economy Supplemented by Market Regulation”, the Urban Master Planning of Wuhan was completed from 1979 to 1981 and approved officially by the State Council in 1982. This was the first general planning approved by the state since the foundation of the PRC.

　　(2) Revised Plan of Wuhan Urban Master Planning in 1988

　　Since Wuhan had been identified as the pilot city for national comprehensive reform, it prepared the Revised Plan of Wuhan Urban Master Planning in 1988 in order to realize “opening to the outside world and stimulating the economy”.

　　The planning prescribed the city as “China’s important production base of steel, machinery, textile, chemical and electronic, and would gradually involved into one of the emerging industry bases of optical fiber, micro-electronics, laser, biological engineering and new materials” and “business, trade, finance, science &technology, culture &education and information center in Central China and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River”.

　　2. Urban planning in the market economy period embodied the concept of regional development

　　In 1990s, based on the guideline of establishing socialist market economy in an all-round way, the Urban Master Planning of Wuhan (1996-2020) was established, in which the nature of Wuhan was: the capital of Hubei Province, an important central city in Central China, an important industrial base, a transportation and communication hub of China.

　　The development goal: to become a modern city with strong economic strength, developed scientific education, a complete service system, a reasonable urban layout, perfect infrastructure, a good ecological environment, a highly civilized society and riverside characteristics.

　　3. Summary

　　(1) The main idea of urban planning

　　In the era of socialist market economy, the planning absorbed western classic theory of “garden city” to put forward the integrated development of urban area and suburbs in the light of development law of a modern mega city to actively develop satellite towns and new towns; in order to adapt to distribution characteristics of mountain and water resources in Wuhan, the multi-centrally joint-development space layout was adopted to build a modern ecological city with waterfront features.

　　(2) The role of urban planning

　　Urban planning and construction in this period: First, it constructed the development pattern of “tertiary-secondary-primary” industries from inside to outside and basically established the space framework for economic development of modern cities.

　　Second, it put forward the “1+7” urban development system for the first time: based on developing the main city in a controlled way, seven satellite towns would be set up about 15 to 25 km away from the main city to accommodate evacuated inhabitants and rural urbanization population; thereby, the pattern of “main city + satellite towns” focusing on future regional development has been formed.

　　Third, it strengthened the protection for water and mountain natural resources and the landscape garden city framework has taken shape.

　　Fourth, the planning adopted the “circle” model and put forward the “Ring + radiation” trunk network system, so that Wuhan was equipped with traffic characteristics of an international metropolis.

　　(Ⅳ) A historical summary of Wuhan’s centennial urban planning

　　Wuhan is an integration of Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang developed on different natural and historical conditions, whose planning thought is closely combined with specific resource conditions of Wuhan.

　　At the initial stage of the integration, the development goal of Wuhan is based on the Sun Yat-sen and Zhang Zhidong’s assumption of “tens of millions of people” and “world-level metropolitan”, so the space framework for a mega city is established at the early stage.

　　Each of the previous general plannings of Wuhan always focused on developing traffic advantages and solving river flood. Whether it is properly handled decides the development space of Wuhan.

　　The planning method has shifted from a pure material planning to a comprehensive one, from the central city to regional areas, from functional division to group-based development, and thus the urban planning theory of Wuhan gradually comes to mature.

　　Centennial planning history of Wuhan tells us there are different urban problems at different historical periods. Only when we keep up with the times and constantly adjust and develop planning ideas according to the realistic situation of urban development can we make the optimal planning decision.