With the speeding up of urbanization in China, overall urban-rural development has been the need of times. Countryside will experience more severe and qualitative social and economic transformation than that of city. This makes the rural construction and development directly relates to the course and quality of urbanization. At present, the rural space planning aiming at urban and rural development as a whole is still in the exploration. The relative systematic theories and mature experiences

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... ve not yet formed. This paper first reviews China's rural planning practices since the new countryside construction in 2006. Then, based on system theories, particularly the self-organization theory, the inadequacies and invalidation of rural planning practices over the past one decade are deeply analyzed. Finally, basic principles and strategies for space optimization in rural areas are proposed from the new theoretical perspective. Overall urban-rural development: the need of times In 2004, the fourth Plenary Session of the 16th CPC Central Committee initiated "overall urbanrural development" as a key national policy and defined " new rural construction" as a major historical mission in the course of China's modernization. Since then, many relevant policies and regulations have been promulgated, indicating the importance of "overall urban-rural development" as a national strategy of development. Nationwide, the practices of new rural construction has been carried out in full swing, and the reformation of urban-rural planning has made continuous progress. After 2006, 25 provinces and cities have launched the new rural planning compilation and construction practices. According to incomplete statistics, by the end of June, 2012, there have been nearly 53 "urban-rural planning regulations" issued or to be issued in these provinces and cities following erection of the "Urban and Rural Planning Law of the People's Republic of China". Emergence of new planning types, including "urban-rural integrated planning", "county (municipal) level planning" and "overall urban-rural planning" symbolizes that China has entered the implementation stage of urban-rural planning Urban-rural apace: a complex macro-system difficult to deal with the traditional planning ideas Problems of spatial development of rural areas in the process of urbanization In the process of urbanization, space of rural areas might be easily fragmented. As the number of permanent resident population in rural areas decreases, the number of rural settlements and house sites, however, sees no signs of decrease. Meanwhile, the deepening connection between villages and urban economy and society has led to soaring to land use for non-agricultural sectors. Despite of