This paper analyzed the land use changes from 1995 to 2006 in Jiangxi's Jitai Basin, which is in the typical red soil hilly regions in southern China, using the ARCINFO format land use data in 1995 and 2000 with a scale of 1:10 000 and the high-resolution Landsat TM image in 2006. By interpreting the TM images with the reference to the above data, the 2006 land use data was obtained. Based on these three-period land use data, this paper did some analysis work using ArcGIS 9.2 and EXCEL, and investigated the characteristics of land use change in the Jitai Basin. The outcomes indicated that during the study period, the land use was steadily developed in Jitai Basin, in which forestland and farmland remained as the main types. Water area and built-up land area were gently increased while the other four land use types were declined, but the proportion of every type is basically unchanged. The annual changing rate of unused land was the largest, and that of forestland was the smallest. Considering the transform of land uses in the Jitai Basin, forestland converted to farmland, farmland converted to water area, and grassland converted to forestland were the three main types from 1995 to 2006, any of which covered an area above 2300 hm2. In view of the point of spatial distribution, forestland converted to farmland was the most widely distributed type, while the type of farmland converted to water area was scarcely distributed. Grassland converted to forestland was mainly distributed in the northern part of the Jitai Basin. In the future, built-up land area and water area will expand gradually, both of which have positive state index, and the others have negative state index values, thus they will slowly shrink.