The introduction of Christian architecture to China occurred during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, with its widespread dissemination in China after the Second Opium War. In Guangzhou, one of the treaty ports, the scope of Christian missionary work expanded significantly, leading to the establishment of churches, missionary hospitals, and missionary schools, among other Christian architectural structures. During the Qing Dynasty, Guangzhou’s urban layout had reached a mature stage through continuous improvement over various dynasties. As an external landscape element, the recent introduction of Christian architecture into Guangzhou posed considerable disturbances and challenges to the traditional urban landscape system that had already formed. Guangzhou served as a pivotal location for the modern entry of Christianity into China. Within the urban landscape framework and order, how did Christian architecture attain its landscape position compared to existing landscape elements in Guangzhou? And how did it evolve against the backdrop of significant shifts in modern political situations and urban development patterns? The contemplation of these two questions constitutes the origin of this study.In existing research on landscape elements, scholars have predominantly elaborated on approaches to grasp landscape elements from different perspectives such as urban imagery, urban space, and architectural classification. However, studies on Christian architecture in Guangzhou have mainly focused on spatial distribution, architectural forms, history, and culture, lacking analysis from the perspective of the components and overall order of China’s traditional urban landscape system regarding the role, status, and evolution of Christian architecture within Guangzhou’s urban landscape system. Such analysis is crucial for understanding the characteristics embodied by China’s traditional cities and Christian architecture in terms of their role, status, and evolution within Guangzhou’s urban landscape system. Therefore, this paper adopts the perspective of Guangzhou’s constructed landscape system and uses the development of Christianity in Guangzhou as the basis for temporal division, with the earliest introduction of Christianity to Guangzhou in the 12th year of Emperor Jiaqing’s reign in the Qing Dynasty (1807) serving as the starting point for research. After the Second Opium War in 1860, Christianity gained widespread dissemination in Guangzhou, leading to the establishment of churches, hospitals, schools, and other Christian architectural structures. In 1938, Guangzhou fell under Japanese occupation during the Sino- Japanese War, causing religious activities to cease, marking the endpoint of this research. This paper divides the research into two periods based on the Second Opium War, with the old city and new city within the city walls of the Qing Dynasty’s Guangzhou Prefecture, as well as the four gateway districts outside the city walls-West Gate, East Gate, South Gate, and the area north of the North Gateserving as the research spaces. Taking Christian architecture as the research object, this study first compiles and locates the spatial distribution of dominant landscape elements in the two historical periods from historical materials such as gazetteers, conducting a preliminary analysis of the types and spatial distribution of Christian architecture. Secondly, using literature from local gazetteers and urban maps as the basis for statistics and analysis, this paper places Christian architecture within fourdimensions of the urban landscape structure: landscape domains, main axes, special landscape nodes, and skylines. It analyzes Christian architecture’s participation and visual perception in the urban landscape system compared to other landscape elements across these four dimensions, assessing its spatial combinations in different dimensions and specific spatial scenarios, and analyzing its spatial relationships with traditional Chinese architectural types to make accurate and detailed judgments. The study found that in the first period, Christian architecture held a relatively low status in Guangzhou’s urban landscape, often excluded outside the city walls and failing to integrate into Guangzhou’s landscape structure. However, in the second period, as Guangzhou’s landscape system changed, Christian architecture gradually entered and began participating in the construction of the urban landscape structure. For instance, Hui’ai Church, Guangxiao Church, and the Sacred Heart Cathedral became crucial components of landscape axes and had a significant impact on the skyline, elevating their landscape position, albeit still lower than that of high-level government offices and commemorative buildings. At this time, despite the emergence of numerous Christian buildings, they did not fundamentally alter the dominant status of Guangzhou’s traditional landscape elements. The increased Christian architecture during this period not only served as carriers of Western culture but also added new landscape elements to the urban streetscape, integrating with Chinese culture to form an architectural style that blends East and West. In the protection efforts of Guangzhou’s built heritage and environmental practices, it is crucial to focus not only on the towering and uniquely shaped features of Christian architecture but also to deeply understand the design intentions behind the status, role, and spatial combinations of these buildings relative to other traditional Chinese architectural types within landscape domains, main axes, skylines from key vantage points, and landscape nodes. The goal of protection efforts is not only to achieve the preservation of original materials and forms but also to pursue a realm of “original intention presentation”, which entails restoring the historical appearance and design intent of the buildings to the greatest extent possible during preservation. Therefore, this study aims to assist in more accurately grasping the landscape order of Christian architecture and traditional Chinese architectural types in group combinations during the preservation practices of Guangzhou’s urban landscape character, proposing urban design and heritage protection schemes that better align with the authenticity of the historical environment.