English abstract：This report reviews the general background of China’s reform on household registration system（HRS）. It examines the regional experiences over the last two decades，and documents and analyses Shanghai’s efforts in this field. The authors advocate the principle of combination of entitlement with responsibility in household registration reform. The report argues that to abolish household registration system immediately is neither necessary nor possible，and the reform should be carried out in a gradual way，and should take the separation of social welfare and other individual rights from the household registration status as the first step. Household registration system should be reformed to serve as an efficient institutional tool in balancing the relationships between urban development，social justice and equity，public finance and service provision，environment and resource protection.