Urbanization, Urban Greening, Planning Policies in China

China’s unprecedented urbanization has been observed to remarkably induce both positive and negative impacts on public health. And China’s urbanization is believed to be inherently political. The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate the health context of contemporary China in the urbanization process by synthesizing evolving policies for public health and green space. Our study of policy agendas in China from 1949 till now reveals a parallel relationship between agendas for green space and policies for public health. It was not until recently that a trend of integrated green space and public health emerges. This essay firstly shows the urbanization process in different phases of contemporary China and then provides an overview of those paralleled agendas for green space and public health in the last four decades. By the end, this essay unravels ongoing linkages between green space and health and discusses future potentials with comparisons to foreign countries. With a synthesis of the evolving political context of green space and public health in contemporary China, this essay leads to further discussion of new possibilities for advanced research and multidisciplinary actions in the post-epidemic era.