The practices of wetland creation and restoration for mitigating wetland loss have been frequently carried out throughout the world; however, many of these projects do not work well. In this paper, the authors analyze wetland creation from the aspect of whole-ecosystem development, and explain the extreme difficulty of human design in wetland creation by the theories of ecological succession. More space should be given to self-design than human design in wetland creation, and the principles of ecological succession enable us to better use the great design ability of nature in just the way we wish. A wetland creation project for rare waterfowl conservation in China Yancheng Biosphere Reserve was chosen as a demonstration, designed totally according to the principles of ecological succession and allowed to self-design free of interference from human activities. A 240 ha reed wetland was created from the lalang grassland after 4 years of self-design. Success was proved by its plant composition and a good habitat value for many more birds than in the same area 4 years before.