Land Use/Cover Change (LUCC) is an influencing factor of regional climate change that cannot be ignored. However, there still exists no highly reliable Land Use/Cover data so far, and thus great uncertainties remain in the study of the effects of LUCC on climate change. For this reason, two datasets from China Statistical Yearbook and observed MODIS (MODerate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) respectively are used to compare and analyze changes in three typical land use/cover types (forest, urban, cropland) over administrative regions. The results show that:(1) Spatial distribution and changes in the forest cover in provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) of China overall agree well during 2004-2011 between China Statistical Yearbook and MODIS data. Both China Statistical Yearbook and MODIS data show that forest cover increases to different degrees in most provinces (municipalities, autonomous regions) of China but decreases in Beijing, Tianjin, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Shanghai, and Jiangsu based on MODIS data. MODIS data can accurately reflect the total forest cover, but there exist large errors in single forest types and their changes due to low classification accuracy. (2) The area of urban built districts from China Statistical Yearbook and its increment are much higher in eastern China than in the western region. Huanghuaihai region and southeastern coastal region of China show an accelerated expansion trend of urban area, which is consistent with the actual situation. However, MODIS data cannot reflect the process of rapid urbanization development in China over the past decade. The possible reasons are that urban areas are usually small with complex surface. Limited by spatial resolution, the classification accuracy of MODIS land cover is low in discrete regions, leading to no monitoring results of expansion of the new cities. (3) Both the values and spatial distribution are in good consistency among MODIS cropland, sown area of farm crops and irrigated area from China Statistical Yearbook, and the largest coverage of these three data are all in Huanghuaihai region. However, change quantities of the three data show great difference during 2001-2011. In particular, MODIS cropland and irrigated areas from China Statistical Yearbook increase in provinces (municipalities, municipalities) in eastern China, while sown area of farm crops from China Statistical Yearbook decrease. (4) The change rate of urban built districts in China Statistical Yearbook is the largest (6.25%) among all types of land use changes over China during 2004-2011, followed by forest. Because the quantity of arable land is large and the changes account for a relatively small proportion of the arable land, the change rate of MODIS cropland, sown area of farm crops and irrigated area are all small.