Recent land reforms in China have sought to address fundamental problems with the Household Production Responsibility System such as land fragmentation. Primarily the reforms have targeted land productivity and grain output. However, the reforms have had a much broader effect on rural development as they have allowed a degree of household specialisation in non-grain activities both on and off the farm. Based on information collected from household surveys and fieldwork in Shandong and other provinces, this paper reports on some of the impacts of land reform on productivity, household specialisation and rural development.