The purpose of the study was to examinee how lifelong learning cities are developing in China. To accomplish this goal, the study first reviewed theoretical framework and practical achievements in other countries to anchor China in an international context. Since Shanghai first declared to ‘build Shanghai into a lifelong learning city to meet the challenges of the new era’ in September, 1999, many cities followed the suit. Until now, by a rough estimate, there were altogether 61 lifelong learning cities in China, which occupied 10% of the total number of cities. China\'s experiences to build lifelong learning cities showed distinctive features from other countries on the sense of purposes, ways of promotion and other aspects. Meanwhile,
some problems were identified and needed to be solved. Therefore, the study provided several suggestions for future development in the end.