A contradiction has become greatly acute between the limited cultivated land resources and the ever-increasing expansion of construction and ecological land with the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization in China. It is necessary to explore the regional characteristics and change trend of cultivated land for national food security. According to the 2009-2018 land survey grid data, this study aims to investigate the temporal and spatial changes of cultivated land in China in the past 10 years from the aspects of quantity, space and site conditions with the aid of GIS spatial analysis, and mathematical index models. In terms of the quantity change of cultivated land, the index of the dynamic degree model and the relative change rate were used to characterize the range and regional difference of cultivated land change. In terms of the spatial change of cultivated land, the index of change aggregation was introduced to indicate whether the types of cultivated land change were agglomeration. In addition, the index of spatial change rate was introduced to estimate the intensity of spatial change in the regional cultivated land. In terms of farmland site conditions, the average altitude of cultivated land and the distance between cultivated land and city were usually used to represent indirectly the quality change of cultivated land. The results showed that: 1) The amount of cultivated land in China was generally stable from 2009 to 2018, but there was quite difference in the regional areas. The cultivated land decreased by 393 700 hm2 in the country, with a reduction rate of 0.29%. Specifically, Shandong, Hubei and Liaoning decreased the most, whereas, Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia and Guangdong increased the most. 2) In the past 10 years, the changing pattern of cultivated land at the city level in China has shown a central belt along the “Harbin-Zhengzhou-Kunming” line. The reduction in the central zone was basically the same as the national reduction, whereas, the reduction in the eastern part of the central zone was similar to the increase in the western part. The reduced areas with high average dynamics of cultivated land were mainly distributed in provincial capitals and key cities, whereas, the increased areas were mostly located in the southern hilly areas. 3) The spatial change rate of cultivated land was relatively high in the northern part of the of Middle and Lower Reaches Yangtze River Plain, the Huanghuaihai Plain, and the Sichuan Basin, indicating that great efforts were needed to adjust the spatial layout of cultivated land. However, the net increase in total was not large in the city, combined with the change characteristics in the number of cultivated land. 4) The reduced cultivated land in China was mainly distributed within 30 km from the center of major cities, while the increase mainly occurred in the areas 40 km away from the center of the city. As such, the country can be divided into three types of functional regions, according to the location of a buffer zone. Combined with the quantity and spatial change, it was found that the average altitude of cultivated land increased significantly in Shizuishan, Jiayuguan, Altay, Ili, Alxa, Hotan, Yan'an, Ya'an, Yulin, Zhangjiakou, Lishui and Quanzhou, indicating a more serious “uphill” phenomenon of cultivated land in these areas. The results show that it is necessary to improve the precise positioning of natural resource management and the ability to implement targeted and differentiated policies based on the dynamic identification of “hot spots” of cultivated land changes in the future.