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ABSTRACT: As model of placemaking for the Chinese, Feng-shui builds hierarchies of natural and social order and makes sense of identity, which lead to the hierarchical responsibility coverage of caring for and conserving of the landscape, and the achievement of sustainable environment and communities. Feng-shui has unique models of process, evaluation and representation. It has a "live-within" model of box-within-box, which may inject some fresh air into the Western design theories dominated by the point-line-area model, and may provide a new vocabulary for a more comprehensive understanding of, and a new way of thinking and acting toward, sustainable landscapes. 1. Introduction The concept and practice of Feng-shui (which literally means wind and water) can be dated back as early as the fourth century BC, and consolidation of the system is believed to have taken place in the third and fourth century AD (Needham, 1956). Until early 1950s, it was widely practiced throughout China by the emperor as well as the masses, the sacred and the profane. Every city, village, house, and tomb in traditional China more or less bore some mark of Feng-shui.. After going underground while officially banned in communist China for nearly four decades, it has begun to appear again (Fig. 1). The practice of Feng-shui flourishes even more in Chinese dominated countries and areas outside mainland China, e.g. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore (Feuchtwang, 1974; Bennett, 1978; Lip, 1979, 1986; Skinner, 1982; Walters, 1989). Feng-shui has even appeared in Western culture, in New York and Washington DC (Rossbach, 1983). Fig.1 A landscape design proposed by the author was under the judgment by two geomancers (center) as well as a professor (left) and the client (right) (photo by the author) Noted and reported by Westerners constantly since Yates (1868) more than one hundred years ago, Feng-shui has been understood and treated differently at different time and from various points of view. With a few exceptions (Johnson ,1881) and Schlegel ,1890), most early colonial administrators and Christian missionaries interpreted Feng-shui as a "black art," "superstition" (Eitel, p.4), or "charlatanism" (De Groot, p.938). It was the greatest obstacle to Christian activities including construction and engineering in the landscape, which were considered to be necessary by the Westerners for the development of the country (Edkins, 1872; Eitel, 1873; Henry, 1885; Dukes, 1914) and it is reported that hundreds of soldiers had to be sent to protect such construction (Henry, 1885, p.150). Extremely negative judgment and hostile attitudes must have been held among the Jesuits in the early seventeenth century , which may be the excuse for the bonfire that led to the loss of many valuable books on Feng-shui (Needham, 1962). In the twentieth-century Western world, Feng-shui not only has attracted more and more scholars, but has increasingly gained higher status. Needham recognized it for its role in the development of Chinese Science and technology (1956, 1962). Michell (1973) maintained that the nature and purpose of Feng-shui has scarcely been recognized in the Western countries, as compared to such other Chinese inventions as gunpowder, the magnetic compass, and the printing press. Because the latter fit easily within the Western value systems of materialism, and declared that it is now time to reverse the western traditional values. Bennett (1978) suggested the concept of Feng-shui a