I have used GIS data for my GIS model analysis, the following are a few sources that I obtained my shape files for some of the GIS layers.
China Basic GIS layers:
Cite: Data Sharing Infrastructure of Earth System Sciencs. http://www.geodata.cn/Portal/metadata/listMetadata.jsp?category=183&isCookieChecked=true
GADM database of Global Administrative Areas: GADM is a spatial database of the location of the world's administrative areas (or administrative boundaries) for use in GIS and similar software.
Source: http://gadm.org/links
China Land Use and Land Cover: http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn/data/f1aaacad-9f42-474e-8aa4-d37f37d6482f
Cite: Youhua Ran, Xin Li & Ling Lu (2010): Evaluation of four remote sensing based land cover products over China, International Journal of Remote Sensing, 31:2, 391-401.
Finer resolution observation and monitoring of global land cover: http://data.ess.tsinghua.edu.cn/
Cite: Gong, P., et al, 2013. Finer resolution observation and monitoring of global land cover: first mapping results with Landsat TM and ETM+ data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 34, 2607–2654. doi:10.1080/01431161.2012.748992
DEM: http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn/data/acb49ce8-2bfe-4ab4-97ff-e6e727110703
Cite: Void-filled seamless SRTM data V1, 2004, International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), available from the CGIAR-CSI SRTM 90m Database.
China Desert Land: http://westdc.westgis.ac.cn/data/122c9ac2-53ee-4b9a-ae87-1a980b131c9b
Cite: 王一谋,王建华,祁元,颜长珍. 中国1:10万沙漠(沙地)分布数据集. 寒区旱区科学数据中心, 2005. doi:10.3972/westdc.006.2013.db
China Protected Land: http://protectedplanet.net/ It has global protected land data, you can use filter China to download the China protected land.
China Urban Area: http://www.beijingcitylab.com/projects-1/2-urban-growth-boundaries/
Cite: Long, Y., Shen, Y., 2014. Mapping parcel-level urban areas for a large geographical area. arXiv:1403.5864 [cs].
Last updated: June 9, 2015