The urban land information of central Liaoning province in 1954, 1975, 1986, 2000 and 2005 was extracted with the remote sensing images, relief maps and statistical data, and the spatial pattern characteristics, the spatial-temporal changes of these urban lands as well as their causes were studied with the help of index analytic method, GIS spatial analysis and geographical statistics function. The results show that, since the early 1950s, the urbanized land in the study area has been increased continually, and the urban expansion was the fastest from 1954 to 1975, with different cities having different expansion rates. From 1986 to 2005, the function intensity between cities was growing geminately, the spatial radiancy function of urbanization was enhanced, the trend of regional urban development of cities was obvious, and the function of Shenyang as the central city in this highly urbanized area became distinct, with other cities in the area moving towards Shenyang. From 1975 to 2000, small towns developed rapidly. The spatial distribution of relatively high annual urban growth rate was consistent with the direction of the urban center transfer. The causes for these changes are also analyzed in this paper.