In the past few decades, China's cities have experienced a period of rapid development. Great changes have taken place in both urban space and urban life. With the booming of information and communications technology (ICT), ‘Big data’ such as mobile phone signaling, public transportation smart card records and ‘open data’ from commercial websites and government websites jointly promote the formation of the ‘new data environment’, thus providing a novel perspective for a better understanding of what changes have happened or are happening in China’s cities.