The present Chinese urban color plan inclined to assume the way of Japanese, which is based on the theory of the Geography of Color founded by Lenclos. However, both my interview in 2004 and my urban color plan in 2006 show that the way of planning from color to color can hardly meet the requirement of the rapidly developing Chinese cities, and the authority should leave more creative space to the designers. Researching the color scheme of Kirchsteigfeld done by Werner Spillmann in 1994 was very enlightening. Findings of other researchers also helped me to set up a systematic planning method. Considering the complexity of color in urban space, the present way of planning simply by color combination is not sufficient. Spatial configuration is the core of color plan, and the authority should emphasize the color pivot and vision rank to encourage creativity in real design. This article discusses the systematic method of color planning when considering Chinese urban plan system, and with typological means. (c) 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Col Res Appl, 2013