Abstract: With the establishment and improvement of socialist market economy, it is necessary to transform the traditional strategy of land management: the first way is to transform the land management from by the system of planning economy to by the system of market economy; the second is to transform the land use from extensive pattern to intensive pattern. Under those backgrounds, Land reserve, as a method for government to manage urban land, was put forward to help government to persevere resources and estate property in the practices of land management. This paper systematically demonstrated the land reserve's implication, origination and practice in China, analyzed its operational mechanism and anticipated goals, summarized the basic ways for land reserve in China, namely the Shanghai land reserve way directed by market, the Hangzhou land reserve way directed by government and combined with market operation, the Tianjing land reserve way with double reserve and control, and Nanjing land reserve way with land reserved by the society, and put forward two patterns for land reserve, namely the direct land reserve and indirect land reserve. At last, this paper gave out the key principles and methods for local government to implement these two land reserve patterns.