The complicated nature of regional development requires a more integrated approach to reflect its systematic picture. Multi-scale integrated analysis of societal metabolism (MSIASM) is such an approach as it integrates economic, social and ecological dimension. In this paper, we employ such an approach to evaluate regional societal and ecosystem metabolism in China. We set up a series of indicators to present different development perspectives and employ a complete decomposition model to further identify key factors for regional sustainable development. Our research outcomes indicate that both west and north China rely on natural resource for their development while east and south China have more balanced sector structure. We also found that urban areas, especially those large cities, have already reached the level of those developed countries. Thus, how to reduce the gap between urban and rural contexts will be the next challenge of the Chinese government. From temporal point of view, although in recent years China gained great achievement for economic development, there is a lack of attention on improving people's life quality and social service. This requires a more balanced development strategy so that different regions can better utilize their resources and support each other and a more balanced sector structure so that economic development will not be always the main focus of regional government and more attention on improving social welfare will be paid. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.