The resolution from third plenary session of the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China（CPC）clearly proposed to establish national park system, so as to better deal with the relationship between ecological protection and economic development, optimize and improve the system of protected areas, rationalize the existing management system of nature reserve. Protected area plays an important role in the construction of ecological civilization in China. Sorting different modes of protected areas, which are important basises to Chinese national parks, is benefit to the rational distribution of national park system. Based on an investigation of 13 kinds of 3 418 national protected areas (NPAs) in China and using GIS and some quantitative analysis methods, such as point pattern analysis, Ripley’s K function, hot spot clustering, quadrat analysis and Gini coefficient, the spatial structure of NPAs were investigated, with their characteristics and distribution being discussed. Based on matrix raster data covering the whole space, this paper calculates spatial accessibility of all NPAs in China using cost weighted distance method and ArcGIS as platforms. The results show that the distribution of NPAs in China is a type of agglomeration and spatial dependent. Hotspots regions of NPAs were mainly concentrated in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, east side of the 100°E. High density of NPAs concentrated in the regions which are flat, rich of water, broad-leaved forest dominated plain and low mountain area, and have fertile soil, pleasant weather, long history of culture, and high transportation accessibility. The average accessibility of NPAs is about 60.05 minutes, and the area where the accessibility of NPAs is within 60 minutes reaches 70.76%, and the longest time needs 777 minutes. Distribution of the accessibility has pointed to traffic line. Due to the difference of the management systems, the protection of the target and the intensity of development among departments, the departments have developed different management system, standards, and technical specifications. Consequently, the classification system of NPAs is more confused, which results in the confusion of management measures. Therefore, this paper suggests that the construction of the China’s national park system should be based on combing the existing NPAs, to break the existing pattern of strong cohesion and high density, and to seek a balanced development of the whole country.

Key words：protected areas; spatial structure; accessibility; national park; ecological civilization