Characteristics of China's Town-level Land Use in Rapid Urbanization Stage

China is now at a rapid urbanization stage, and various measures are needed including land use regulation to ensure healthy urbanization process. Based on land use change survey data of the Ministry of Land and Resources, this paper analyzes status of town-level land use at the stage of rapid urbanization of China, from aspects of town-level land quantity, town land area per person, land occupied by town construction, land use structure of town, spatial pattern of town-level land, and their spatio-temporal changes. It then identifies major town-level land use problems of this stage as town-level land scale being out of control, extensive land utilization, affected macroscopic economic development, affected cultivated land protection and food security, menaced social harmonious development, misadjusted land use structure, and deteriorated eco-environment. It finally explores scientific land use strategy for healthy urbanization, from the angles of rational guiding town expansion and rigidly reinforcing agriculture land protection, optimizing regional and town-level land use structure and distribution, frugally and intensively utilizing town-level land with various measures, giving overall consideration and coordinating regional urban and rural residential built-up land, and promoting benign town-level land eco-environment through simultaneous adoption of prevention and control measures.