Land is the most important asset for China’s 800 million rural citizens. A rural land tenure system that offers both secure property rights and broad-based land access is a precondition for achieving long-term prosperity and stability. Landesa （formerly known as Rural Development Institute，or RDI），in cooperation with Renmin University and Michigan State University，conducted in mid-2010 the fifth in a series of large-scale sample surveys. Survey results indicate that China has made great strides in securing farmers’ land rights；however，significant challenges remain in areas such as documentation，expropriations and land transfers. This requires urgent legal and policy reforms，and their concrete implementation on the ground.