In the last eleven years, the number of Chinese cities with one or more million inhabitants has grown to 41. Ever-increasing urbanization rates in the country and rapid economic development have presented Chinese planners and policy-makers with the critical challenge of preserving amenity, community and cultural heritage in their cities while also addressing economic development and infrastructure improvements.

     In an effort to ascertain how 'equipped' China is to successfully meet this challenge, a symposium will be held at the Harvard Graduate School of Design sponsored by MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) and the Harvard Graduate School of Design student group ChinaGSD. The symposium is being organized by ChinaPlanning, a network of academics, practitioners, and students based in the Boston Metropolitan Area with a shared interest in Chinese urban planning issues. MIT's MISTI program (MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives) will also cosponsor the event. The symposium will consist of three sessions PRESERVATION, TRANSPORTATION and PLANNING AS AN INSTITUTION with discussions and presentations relating to the challenge described above.

    While attendance at the event is free and open to the general public, the organizers of the event ask individuals who are interested in attending the symposium to pre-register for the symposium by emailing them at chinaplanning@mit.edu. For the complete symposium information and Mandarin translation, please view the flyer:
http://www.hpair.org/chinaplanning/flyer.pdf