The system, its ministries,
and its reform milestones
China's territorial spatial planning system took its current shape in 2018–2019, when the State Council's "Several Opinions on Establishing and Supervising the Implementation of the Territorial Spatial Planning System" merged multiple legacy regimes into one. The system is described as "five levels" — national, provincial, municipal, county, and township — and "three types": territorial spatial master plans, special plans, and detailed plans. The sources below are where the primary documents live, starting with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR), the lead supervising body.
The lead ministry for land, minerals, surveying, and territorial spatial planning. Its policy library holds the circulars that drive every planning cycle — from "double evaluation" (resource and environment carrying capacity + territorial development suitability) to the national territorial spatial plan outline.
The authoritative source for founding documents, including the 2019 "Several Opinions" that established the current system. Policy texts are published under the Zhengce (policy) section with official interpretations.
The State Council Information Office's English portal. Ministry briefings on planning reform, "one map" implementation, and land governance are translated here — the fastest official-English channel for policy intent.
Approved territorial spatial plans and programmatic documents as they are released: provincial master plan approvals, compilation guidelines for municipal plans, and periodic notices. Bookmark-worthy for tracking approvals.
Steers the development-planning side of the equation: national five-year plans, main functional zone strategy, and regional strategies that territorial spatial plans must coordinate with.
Retains authority over urban construction standards, city design guidance, and the construction-permit pipeline that detailed plans plug into. Essential reading alongside MNR for urban projects.
The national-level planning research institute behind many technical studies and methodological explorations — a window into how theory meets practice in current plan compilation.
Policy interpretations and practitioner commentary on every major planning document are tracked in the Guoturen news portal and its document library — the fastest way to see how the field actually reads each new release.