Abstract: Based on the historical facts of climate evolution in China, both the main characteristics of climate change or climate variation and its impacts on social development are summarized. The Holocene in China can be divided into three stages, early warming period, middle warm period and late cooling period, the first two periods of which had played an important role in the ancient origin of Chinese agricultural civilization. The evolution of Chinese civilization over five thousand years was closely related to the replacement cycles between warm-wet period and cold-dry period. It had been well-known that the climate features of Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan dynasties were warm-wet when the political situation was stable and the economy was prosperous, while the climate features of Wei, Jin, Southern Dynasty and Northern Dynasty, late Tang and Qing dynasties were cold-dry when the war was constant and the society was unrest. In the past century, the temperature had increased significantly over China, but the trend of precipitation increasing or decreasing had been not clear. The overall impact of global climate change on China's social and economic development is that the advantages and disadvantages coexist, and the disadvantages outweigh the advantages. In the past 40 years, the main characteristics of climate change had been mainly in three aspects, including fluctuating rising of temperature, aggravating regional differences of precipitation, and occurring frequently of extreme weather or climate events. Deserved to be mentioned, participation in international climate cooperation poses a serious challenge to social progress, but it also provides a good opportunity for the implementation of sustainable development strategies. All in all, China's climate evolution has an irreversible impact on social development promoting the first, and hindering the second.