Creating comfortable and convenient livable cities has become a central goal of China’s current urban development, vital for improving residents’ quality of life, optimizing urban functions, and transforming the urban growth model. This paper examines the strategic significance, practical dilemmas, and implementation pathways of livable-city initiatives. It systematically analyzes problems such as the absence of top-level design, weak systemic coordination, and the tendencies to prioritize image over function and construction over management. To address these challenges, the paper proposes an implementation framework that insists on a people-centered planning and development philosophy and strengthens top-level design for livable-city construction, thereby providing theoretical support for practice.