The contrasts of the content and density characteristics of surface soil organic carbon among four typical landscapes of subtropical region in China were investigated. The results show that the area-weighted mean content of SOC varies widely with landscapes and the highest mean content is present in the lacustrine plain landscape (25.10 g x kg(-1)), followed by the karst landscape (20.84 g x kg(-1)) and mountainous landscape (17.75 g x kg(-1)), whereas the lowest occurs in the hilly red soil landscape (12.07 g x kg(-1)). The coefficient of variation of SOC content ranges from 24.06% to 43.76%, being moderate variation. The main distribution ranges of SOC content are higher than 20 g x kg(-1) in the lacustrine plain landscape and lower than 20 g x kg(-1) in the other three landscapes. The sequence of SOC density in the four landscapes is highly consistent with the sequence of SOC content, and the sequence is as follows: lacustrine plain landscape (6.12 kg x m(-2) > karst landscape (4.30 kg x m(-2)) > mountainous landscape (4.25 kg x m(-2)) > hilly red soil landscape (3.04 kg x m(-2)). The results reveal that the difference of soil parent material, cultivation strength, topography and proportion of land use may be the main reasons caused the variation of SOC content among the four landscapes. Surface soils in typical landscapes of subtropical region are important carbon pool in China.