Abstract：The general urban design has been practiced in Chinese cities for nearly 30 years. Its compilation content, technical routes and
implementation methods have developed, progressed and changed in many ways. In the context of urbanization transformation, owing
to the realities about city landscape and management, the government's initiative to use overall urban design to guide shaping and
enhancing cityscape is growing strongly. This paper explores the ideology and methods of action-oriented general urban design. The first
is to change from passive control to active action, so as to serve the behavior logics and needs of the powerful government, and to reach
social consensus from manifesting and agglomerating the public voice. The second is to change from the one-way thinking of ‘planning
guides implementation’ to the idea of ‘integrate planning and implementation’, and emphasize the key content of city structure and urban
features. The third is to change from focusing on merely static planning outcomes to the overall planning-and-implementation process,
and directly intervene in focal projects of urban repair and ecological rehabilitation, and indirectly make access to urban management
by complying with the urban design guidelines, so as to realize the value of general urban design. We have made long-time practice and
significant progress in the Yiwu Overall Urban Design Project, by practicing the above urban design philosophy.
