Daily precipitation data from observations cannot accurately reflect the spatiotemporal pattern of hourly heavy rainfall in China. Therefore, high temporal resolution precipitation data are desperately needed to advance the research in the field of hourly heavy rainfall in China. In this study, the diurnal cycle of hourly heavy rainfall amount (RA) and heavy rainfall hours (RF) are derived from hourly precipitation records during the period of 1991 to 2010 over entire China. Results show that both RA and RF exhibit obvious increasing trends despite several fluctuations during the period investigated. The area to the east (west) of the line linking Mohe in Heilongjiang and Tengchong in Yunnan is characterized by higher (lower) RA and RF. Changes in RA and RF are most notable in the coastal region of southeastern China and inland area of northwestern China. RA and RF in the nighttime and daytime also exhibit similar spatial distribution patterns. In terms of diurnal variation, RA and RF both show double peaks with the maximum values occurring at 1700 LST and the minimum values occurring at 1200 LST. In addition, four typical factors, i.e. the night light index, the black carbon aerosol optical depth, the number of days with low visibility, and PM2.5 concentration, which are used to represent the extent of urbanization, are analyzed in an attempt to figure out their relationship with RA and RF. The spatial correlation coefficients (CC) of RA and RF with the four factors all increased rapidly during the investigated period in this study over entire China. Specifically, sub-domains of II and III have more significant upward trends of CC according to the criteria of China Climate Zonation (Level 1).