Taking Zhangjiakou City, the central city of mountainous area of northern Hebei Province, as a study area, the spatial pattern and evolution characteristics were analyzed by using land transfer matrix, land use dynamic degree and landscape index, from the aspects of quantitative structure, spatial layout, vertical gradient and landscape spatial pattern. The results were as follows. 1) There was great regional diversity in the evolution characteristics of the “production-living-ecological” (PLE) space of Zhangjiakou City. The ecological space was mainly distributed in Yanshan mountain and Taihang mountain in the east of the study area, and production-living space and production-ecological space were concentrically distributed in Yanghe river valley basin, Sanggan river basin and Huliu river basin, potential space was scattered around the central and western production-living space. 2) In the past 25 years, the PLE space of Zhangjiakou City had different degrees of mutual transformation, while the mutual transformation of ecological space and production-ecological constituted the main type of evolution of the territory space pattern. Compared with 1990–2000, the PLE space changed more frequently from 2000 to 2015. 3) The types of territorial space were more diverse in middle and lower mountain and gentle slope zones from the vertical spectrum. In the past 25 years, ecological space expanded to high-altitude and high-slope zones, while production-ecological space transferred to low-altitude and low-slope zones. 4) The landscape pattern of the PLE space in Zhangjiakou City tended to be fragmented and complicated. 5) The natural geographical environment was the natural basis and spatial carrier of the spatial distribution of the PLE. The aggravation of industrialization and urbanization, social and economic development and policy factors were the reasons for the spatial pattern changes of the PLE space in Zhangjiakou City.

“production-living-ecological” (PLE) space, multifunctional land use, evolution characteristics, the mountainous area of northern Hebei Province