China is important in studying global climate variability and change due to its vast territory, unique topography, and monsoon-driven climate. Our recent analysis of China’s climate in the past half century has shown that China’s climate has changed differently in comparison with the rest of the world, especially North America. For example, the mechanistic explanation of the decreasing trend of pan evaporation for North America does not apply to China because cloud cover and precipitation have barely changed in China. The precipitation frequency for the light precipitation events has significantly decreased in China in the past four decades in contrast with the considerable increase in the precipitation frequency in the contiguous US. Spatially, north and central China has been warming in the past decades, meanwhile south China has been cooling especially for daily maximum temperature. Our results suggest that human activities, such as land use change and aerosol emission, may play a critical role in China’s recent climate change.