Abstract: The scenic construction of the eight ancient cities in Lishui Oujiang Watershed has a long history and distinctive regional characteristics. This research sorts out the relationship between site selection of ancient cities and their original landscape basement patterns, based on the analysis of the four basic landscape typologies: plains looking out mountains, basins nested mountains, hills embed with mountains and valleys surrounding mountains. It analyzes the differences of its manual intervention to optimize regional water systems. Thus, it analyzes the construction characteristics of the cities’ landscape system from four aspects: urban space, landscape cluster, landscape sequence and landscape landmark. This holistic analysis of the landscape system construction characteristics in the area has considerable significance in guiding the development of urban landscape and human settlements in mountainous regions of Zhejiang and Fujian provinces.