Common land model (CoLM) and NCAR Community Land Model 3.0 (NCAR_CLM3.0) are currently two sophisticated land surface models. For the purpose of validating these two models in studying land-atmosphere interaction over different underlying surfaces, two sets of simulations were conducted by using enhanced long term observations at the temperate mixed forest station of Changbai Mountain and the subtropical coniferous forest station of Qianyanzhou, which are the reference sites of Chinese Terrestrial Ecosystem Flux Observational Research Network (ChinaFLUX). Compared with the field observations, the two models can well reproduce the basic characteristics of surface energy and water budget, and CoLM can better simulate latent heat flux than CLM3.0. For CoLM and CLM3.0, correlation coefficients between the simulated and observed daily latent heat flux are 0.80 and 0.65, respectively, at Changbai Mountain station, and 0.69 and 0.64, respectively, at Qianyanzhou station, both above the 99% significance level. In addition, the rate between annual averaged observed and simulated latent heat flux are 1.21 and 0.86 at Changbai Mountain station, and 0.83 and 0.60 at Qianyanzhou station. The results show that the two models can be used as a basic tool of investigating land-atmosphere interactions at the two typical forest ecosystems. Moreover, the differences between the simulations have been analyzed, which would be helpful for improving the parameterization schemes in the land surface model and lays substantial foundation for the subsequent related researches.