1 The challenge of opening up gated communities in Shanghai Authors Mr Hongbing Wang, The University of Queensland, Australia, hongbing.wang@uq.net.au Dr Dorina Pojani, The University of Queensland, Australia, d.pojani@uq.edu.au Abstract The Chinese government has recently issued a directive that calls for an end to gated communities. The aim is to halt the construction of new gated communities, and gradually open existing gated communities to the public. This paper examines the challenges of implementing the new directive in Shanghai, where more than 80% of residential communities are gated. The study reveals five types of challenges: (1) site redesign; (2) urban governance; (3) social frictions; (4) legal status; and (5) financial burden. While redesign is a more straightforward, albeit onerous, task, smoothing governance, social, legal, and financial tensions is a greater challenge. Acknowledgments This is an Authors’ Original Manuscript of an article whose final and definitive form, the Version of Record, has been published in Journal of Urban Design, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2019.1625707, available online at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13574809.2019.1625707 The authors thank all the interviewees who provided information for this article.