Abstract: Recently， the municipal district governance in China has resulted in quite a few problems， and the dilemma of governance has arisen. To overcome the present dilemma， holistic governance might be an alternative. This paper， from the perspective of holistic governance， probed into the problems existing in the municipal district government and found that many factors might contribute to the dilemma of municipal district governance， including orientation， governmental internal integration and poor construction of public service platforms for the government， the markets and the NGOs. Therefore， simply canceling municipal district governments or reforming the government institutions cannot solve these problems once and for all. Instead， the holistic governance is probably a rational choice for us to make in both the long and short terms.

Key words: municipal district government, government governance, holistic governance