This paper explores a GIS-based approach to integrate intangible cultural heritage into landscape assessment and conservation in China.Slender West Lake, a 2500-year-old heritage landscape, was used as a case study.An understanding of its landscape components, both tangible and intangible, was established.It has been found that the intangible components include knowledge of the physical settings, historical activities and spiritual connections.These components are closely linked to the tangible landscape components in different scales.A geodatabase was designed and constructed using an Esri ArcGIS 10.2 platform, which can integrate all information about the intangible cultural heritage for landscape assessment.Accordingly, different strategies to represent intangible cultural heritage in the GIS database were designed.This paper contends the digital GIS database can greatly expand the scope of information that can be attached to incorporate intangible cultural heritage into landscape assessment and conservation.Different relations between tangible and intangible components can be used as the underlying mechanism for building GIS databases.Finally, the implications for the contemporary digital representation of heritage landscapes were identified.