SHANGHAI -- A seminar on the study and implementation of the important remarks that Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, has made about work related to urban development and governance was held in Shanghai on Tuesday.

Li Shulei, head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, and Chen Jining, secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee, attended and addressed the seminar. Both Li and Chen are members of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, the CPC Central Committee with Xi Jinping at its core has planned major city development strategies and implemented a series of related measures, blazing a path for urban progress with Chinese characteristics, according to experts who attended the seminar.

The experts underscored the importance of upholding the principle that cities should be built by the people and for the people. They also proposed deepened reforms in urban development, management and governance as well as a higher level of openness of cities.

Efforts should be made to jointly build harmonious and attractive cities, they said, adding that cities' cultural heritages should be protected and carried on.