The question of pursuing “sustainable development” in all its three dimension – ecologic, economic and social – is an imperative for all the cities of the world, and especially for Chinese cities, which ecological and social records are not encouraging. Already at the beginning of the 1990s, the Chinese government has endorsed this imperative in its policy agenda, and successively increased its commitment by adding climate protection and low-carbon development to this agenda. However, as literature evidences, the results achieved by far in pursuing “low-carbon sustainable development” in Chinese cities do not receive scholars and experts' plaudit. A dragging fiscal reform combined with land-use practices and an overall pursue of economic growth at the expense of the environment are cited by pundits as the main factors. Without contesting these analyses, we propose to further deepen our understanding by approaching the topic from a perspective inspired by sociology of organisation. We aim at exploring the obstacles to “paths to urban sustainability”, based on some practical examples derived from case-studies analysis. Through this micro-level perspective, we hope to complement the already existing macro-explanations largely provided by literature.