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In order to understand China’s environmental problems, to explore possible solutions, and to provide policy makers with recommendations on how to solve these problems, Frontiers in Ecology and Environment organized a special issue of Frontiers, which discusses some of the most far-reaching environmental issues in China today. Zhao et al. provide evidence of the ecological consequences of the urbanization processes in Shanghai from the mid-1970s to 2005. China is one of the world’s “mega-biodiversity countries”, but has suffered severe degradation due to a long history of agricultural exploitation; Tang et al. (pp 347–52) document the importance of mountains in protecting China’s biodiversity. China’s rivers, lakes, and seas are also experiencing serious environmental degradation, and the deficiency of water resources has seriously hampered the country’s economic development. Shao et al. (pp 353–61) review the history and current status of water and air pollution caused by city clusters, while Yang and Pang (pp 362–68) discuss the implementation of “China’s Water Agenda 21”, which was formulated to solve China’s water shortage problems. Fang et al. (pp 369–77) present an overview on the changes in aquatic diversity in the Central Yangtze region over the past 50 years. Finally, An and Hu (pp 378–86) report on their investigation of endocrine disrupting chemicals in China’s aquatic environments, finding high concentrations in seawater along the coasts and in sediments of major rivers. Although these papers do not encompass all of the important environmental issues in China, they do highlight some of the most pressing problems.