Abstract: Maanshan, a city based on the iron resource and industry in China, is one of the cities which have achieved a successful transformation. Maanshan has established a development idea with less dependence on its iron and steel industry since the mid 1990’s. A lot of strategies and actions have been done to obtain a sustainable development of Maanshan. This study examines Mananshan’s successful transition and restructuring from the perspective of entrepreneurial city theory, focusing on its entrepreneurial discourse, entrepreneurial fashion and entrepreneurial institutional innovation.The first key reason for Maanshan’s successful transition is that the city’s designated functions have being advanced with the times. After experienced as "medium-sized iron and steel corporation" in original and "iron and steel industrial city" in 1980’s and the early 1990’s, the designated functions of Maanshan have been publicized as "the Yangtze River region's important manufacturing city and a riverside garden city for residents and visitors" after 1996. This up to date designated functions are considered as an entrepreneurial discourse by this paper. It has not only guided the city’s transition to a specific direction, but also marketed the city to the world. Secondly, an important reason for Maanshan’s successful transition lies in its municipality’s actions full of entrepreneurial fashion. For carrying out the city’s designated functions, the municipality has done lots of tangible actions, including the transformation and upgrading of traditional iron and steel industry, the production of new industrial space and new consumption space, and the improvement of living environment. By these positive actions, Maanshan has transformed from a productive city to an integrated city.Last but not least reason for Maanshan’s successful transition is its strategies in entrepreneurial institutional innovation. Interscalar strategies have been adopted by Maanshan to create a better institutional environment for innovation. At the inner city scale, Maanshan has reorganized its administrative boundaries to implement the actions of producing new spaces. While at the regional scale, Maanshan has taken positive regionalization strategies, that is, to strengthen its co-operation with the Yangtze River Delta and the Nanjing Metropolitan Area to enhance its competitiveness.In summary,this paper accounts that Maanshan’s successful transition is based on the entrepreneurial city strategy. Entrepreneurial discourse, municipality’s entrepreneurial fashion and the entrepreneurial institutional innovation are the three main points in the progress. The experiences of Maanshan will shed light on other mineral resources and industrial cities’transition in China. And through the research of Maanshan’s transition, this paper also enriches entrepreneurial city theory with empirical study of urban in China.