Developing Tailor-Made Urban Environmental Policies for China’s Low-Carbon Cities—Implications from Japan and Germany

China’s urban conditions are facing dire challenges due to the incremental development paces and deteriorating eco- and environmental situations. To cope and pursue urbanization in a sustainable manner, the Chinese government has strenuously enacted an array of national urban environmental policies. This paper reviews these policies from “garden city,” “eco-city” to “low-carbon city” to determine the foci of the environment-related urban environmental policy developments under different periods in China. Two case studies of the renewable energy-exporting town of Rhein-Hunsrück district in Germany and the eco-town of Kitakyushu city in Japan are examined and analyzed to obtain enlightening factors in terms of their urban environmental policies as well as the references and implications from their successes and limits. Major findings indicate that the local autonomy and flexibility in policymaking and civic participation profoundly contributed to the successful switch to renewable energy in Germany’s case. For Japan’s case, government policy and financial support played significant role in transforming the industrialized city of Kitakyushu into sustainable practices center of eco-city. These experiences could offer insightful references to China’s low-carbon urban developments from different perspectives.