Abstract:On July 31, 1990, Mr. Qian Xuesen formally proposed the concept of Shan-shui City in his letter to Professor Wu Liangyong. In a broad sense,the Shan-shui City refers to the natural ecosystem, while in a narrow sense, the Shan-shui City refers to the city with mountains and water. Under the narrow definition of Shan-shui City, this paper only discusses the relationship between the element of“water”and the landscape construction of ancient cities. By comparing the three ancient cities of Yongzhou, Changsha, and Yueyang in the Huxiang region from three levels of macro, meso, and micro, in terms of urban site selection pattern, urban infrastructure, and urban water landscape creation, this study aims to clarify the inherent meaning of the“water”landscape in Shan-shui City, explore and reveal the landscape construction mechanism of water in ancient cities, and expand the boundary scope of Shan-shui City theory. The purpose is to accumulate scientific comments and add thinking arguments for landscape architecture construction of contemporary Shan-shui City.