ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Chinese traditional urban form in general. Its remarkable continuity presents Chinese cities an ideal test ground for the exploration of typomorphology. China has a large number of historic cities dating back to thousands of years in history. The remaining historic cities offer the lens through which the extremely rich Chinese cultural tradition can be revealed and reconsidered in a new global context. Andrew Boyd commented that Chinese cities were less remarkable for their antiquity than for their continuity. The description of Chinese urban form suggested considerable variety of urban forms during different periods because the political socio-economic and cultural factors driving the change were weighted differently in specific periods over the thousands of years' history. In a great generalisation, Chinese cities can be classified into four categories based on some common morphological features that can be regarded as the continuity.
