Urban expansion in China has led to rapid urbanization occupying a huge amount of cultivated land, and in turn, to adverse effects on city environments. By collecting data from 30 big cities in China, including the 4 biggest municipalities and 26 provincial government cities, this paper analyzes the current status of urbanization and identifies the land use changes as determined by a geographic information system (GIS) analysis. It also examines the relationships between urbanization level, the economy and environmental status, by applying a regression model. Finally, the paper proposes a perspective for promoting sound urbanization under the Circular Economy (CE) in China. The authors determined that 14,996 km 2 of cultivated land have been converted into urban built-up areas in China between 1990 and 2000. Above all, the changes in the three megalopolises of the Yangtze River Delta, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and the Pearl River Delta were substantial and the land use efficiencies of these areas are higher than in the other areas. The authors also found that urbanization is positively associated with per capita GDP. The regression analysis for per capita solid waste indicated an inverted-U shape relationship with urbanization.