According to the results of the land-use change survey, China had 122.0827 million hectares of cultivated land, 11.5490 million hectares of garden land, 235.7411 million hectares of forestland, 262.1438 million hectares of pastureland, 25.5309 million hectares of land for other agricultural use, 26.0151 million hectares of land for residential and industrial/mining sites, 2.3085 million hectares of land for transport and communications and 3.5987 million hectares of land for water conservancy facilities. The rest was unused land. By comparison with 2004, the cultivated land in 2005 declined by 0.30%, the garden land rose 2.31%, the forestland increased 0.30%, the pastureland dropped 0.21%, the land for residential and industrial/mining sites went up 1.11%, the land for transport and communications grew 3.37%, and the land for water conservancy facilities was up 0.26%.

The net area of reduced cultivated land in Chinain 2005 amounted to 361,600 hectares, of which 138,700 hectares of cultivated land were used for construction. In addition, it was found that 73,400 hectares of cultivated land had been used for construction but their variation reports were not submitted; 53,500 hectares were destroyed by natural hazards; 390,400 hectares were turned into ecological preservation land; 12,300 hectares were reduced due to agricultural restructuring; and 306,700 hectares of cultivated land were newly added by land consolidation, reclamation and development. The area of the added land was equivalent to 144.56% of that of the cultivated land occupied by construction. 

The newly added land for construction in 2005 totaled 432,000 hectares, of which 151,100 hectares were used for industrial and mining purposes (including various economic development zones and parks), 98,200 hectares were for urban construction, 66,600 hectares for rural construction, and 107,600 hectares for communications, water conservancy and other infrastructures.

The protection of cultivated land, especially capital farmland, was conscientiously strengthened. The Measures on the Assessment of Provincial-level Governments’ Responsibility Targets for Farmland Protection issued by the State Council stipulated that the governments of various provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government would be responsible for the reserves of farmland and the area of protected capital farmland. The MLR, together with the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Construction, the Ministry of Water Conservancy and the State Forestry Bureau, worked out and issued the Opinions on Further Improving the Work Related to Capital Farmland Protection; distributed the Notice of Establishing Demonstration Areas of Capital Farmland Protection to bring into full play the role of models and comprehensively raise the work level of capital farmland protection; circulated the Notice of Strengthening and Improving the Work of Land Development and Consolidation; and promulgated the 2005 Guide to State-invested Projects of Land Development and Consolidation. In 2005, 1,326 State-invested land development and consolidation projects were put on file, with the total construction    area being 1,291,200 hectares. The number of such projects operated in major grain producing areas accounted for 47% of the total and their construction area, 53%. The MLR also issued the Notice of the Basic Work of Converting the Quantity and Quality of Added Farmland According to Grades, and took stricter measures to improve the work of balancing between occupation and addition of farmland.

The MLR energetically promoted the economic and intensive use of land and conducted an investigation of the use of inventory land in the whole country. It was discovered that as of the end of 2004, China’s planned urban areas had 72,000 hectares of idle land, 54,800 hectares of unoccupied land, and 135,600 hectares of approved but unsupplied land. The total of these three categories of land amounted to 262,400 hectares, accounting for 7.8% of the gross of urban land for construction. The MLR conscientiously conformed to the requirements of “Six Disapproves” and “Eight Musts” for construction land and, through examination, cut the supply of 4631.9 hectares of such land. The Ministry summarized and energetically popularized 100 typical cases of economic and intensive use of land, formulated new policies to promote the use of land in the same way, strictly controlled the total supply of land, and stringently examined and verified 24 open economic development zones, export processing zones and bonded zones.

Land administration was always in the service of economic construction. Total area of construction land examined and approved for supply in 2005 reached 346,800 hectares, of which 149,300 hectares was approved by the State Council and 197,500 hectares by provincial authorities. The land approved in batches for construction of industrial, mining, storing and housing sites was 160,000 hectares and that for transport and communications, water conservancy and other sites was 186,800 hectares.

The basic work of land administration was remarkably strengthened. The national standards for the Classification of Land Uses had been submitted to the State Standardization Administration Commission for approval. The work plan of the second national land survey was made; a land renewal survey was carried out in 18 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government; and a database of present status of land use was set up in 1,526 counties   and cities. The cadastral survey was completed in 82.24% urban areas of China. The issuance percentage of land-use licenses for State-owned land was up to 76.38%; that of ownership licenses for collective-owned land was 33.19%; and that of land-use licenses for collective-owned land amounted to 70.69%. Grading and evaluation of agricultural land were conducted in 25 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, and passed the check and acceptance in 13 provinces.           

The system of land market was improved; the coverage of paid use of land was further expanded; and the granting system of Stated-owned land was made better. The total area of granted land in China was 163,200 hectares and the corresponding fees were 550.515 billion yuan （～US$68.8 billion）. Of these, the area of land granted by public bidding, auction and listing was 57,200 hectares and the corresponding fees were 392.009 billion yuan（～US$49 billion）, constituting 35.06% of the total area and 71.21% of the total fees, respectively. The land reserve system was improved and the land market monitoring and land price management intensified. The results of dynamic monitoring of the land market in more than 1,000 counties, cities and prefectures indicated that as for the structure of land sources, 56% of the supplied land was from the inventory and 44% was newly added; as for the structure of land applications, 43.33% of the supplied land was used for industrial, mining and storing sites, 30.56% for real estate development, and 26.11% for other purposes. Of the total area of the real estate development land, 29.2% was used for commercial and service properties, 48.7% for common residential buildings, 9.3% for economic and applicable housing, 0.2% for high-grade flats and 12.6% for other residences. Systematic policies of land supply for real estate market were worked out.