To build land surface dataset for climate model, with application of remote sensing technique as well as the Geographic Information System (GIS), the data of surface type, roughness and albedo over China in 1997 were retrieved, resolutions being 10 km× 10 km. Based on these data,an analysis is conducted on the geographic distributions and seasonal variations of surface vegetation cover and roughness as well as albedo over China. Results show that surface vegetation cover is mainly located to the south of Yangtze River, in Southwest and Northeast China and sparse vegetation cover is in the Northwest. The variation of land surface cover affects the variations of land surface roughness and albedo. High albedo occurred in the north of Xinjiang Autonomous Region, the north of Northeast China and the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau in winter, in correspondence with the location of snow cover.For most part of China, surface roughness decreases and albedo increases in winter, while the roughness increases and the albedo decreases in summer, which could mainly result from land surface cover (snow cover and vegetation cover) and soil moisture changes. This shows that the geographic distribution and seasonal variation of the albedo are alnost opposite to those of the roughness, in agreement with theoretical results. Temporally, the amplitude of surface roughness change is quite small in comparison with the roughness itself.