China is in the process of rapid urbanization, and wise land use is critical to the long-term sustainbility of Chinese cities. Promotion of a compact city is typically believed to be a helpful for sustainable land use management. However, given the fact that Chinese cities are characterized by high population densities, the applicability of a more compact solution to expanding cities in China remains questionable; there is little evidence to suppot the many claims in its favor. In seeking to provide empirical data to explore the application of compact city theory in China, one of the key problems researchers face is the task of measuring the urban compactness, in order to objectively investigate the current characteristics of urban compactness.
To meet this need, indices were developed for measuring the urban land use compactness, by which the partial distribution characteristics of urban land use compactness were identified and applied to the Chaoyang district of Beijing. The following conclusion can be made: (1) Comprehensive land use compactness in Chaoyang district has increased during the period 2001-2007, especially the population density; (2) the spatial distribution of land use compactness has the characteristics of a ring structure, which shows a decreasing trend with its distance to the city center; (3) there is a strong positive correlation between urban land use compactness and location. The better the location is, the higher the land use compactness is
