The report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China said, "we will advance people-centered new urbanization." Marx's urban critical thought is an important guiding theory for the development and governance of socialist cities with Chinese characteristics in the new era. It provides important theoretical support for promoting the modernization of urban governance, realizing the integrated development of urban and rural areas with high quality and opening a new situation of modernization. On the basis of summarizing and reflecting on the latest research results of academic circles on China's urban governance modernization, this paper expounds that urban governance modernization is not only the natural requirement of opening the second Centennial new journey, but also the inevitable requirement of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way, which makes urban governance modernization the natural choice of building a socialist modern country in an all-round way. At the same time, back to the original context of Marx's urban critical thought, based on the classic Marxist texts such as Das Kapital, Manuscript of Economics and Philosophy in 1844, Theses on Feuerbach, Die Deutsche Ideologie, and on the perspective of historical materialism of Marx's urban critical thought, this paper examines the philosophical meaning of Marx's urban critical thought. We can find that Marx activated his understanding of the important position of cities in the development of modern society through his historical criticism of capital, consolidated the historical basis of exploring the general laws and trends of urban development through his criticism of modern "civil society", and established the basic idea of promoting the unity of urban development and human development through his criticism of urban and human development. In fact, it is the theoretical guidance provided by Marx's urban critical thought for modern urban development and China's urban governance modernization. On the basis of systematically explaining the vision and philosophical implication of Marx's urban critical thought, explaining its practical direction for promoting the modernization and development of urban governance in contemporary China, it requires us not only to take green city as the primary principle of contemporary new urban construction, but also to adhere to the new urbanization construction road of coordinated urban and rural development. Moreover, we should strive to embark on the track of "people-centered" urban governance modernization. In short, since socialism with Chinese characteristics entered the new era, people's demand for a better urban life and a livable and professional environment has increased day by day, and people's desire to share the fruits of urban development has also increased. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a scientific urban critical thought to guide and promote contemporary China's urban modernization and its governance practice, so as to achieve the goal of building a modern and powerful country in China, that is to say, to achieve the second Centennial goal, and Marx's urban critical thought is the best solution to this problem.