Balanced regional development is essential to China’s economic stability and efficiency and achievement of the goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Based on the DMSP/OLS nighttime lights data of 291 cities at or above prefecture level during 1992-2013, this paper examines the regional disparities and trends of Chinese mainland’s economic development. The findings are as follows:(1) During sample observation period, China’s overall regional disparities generally declined despite some volatility; China’s intra-regional disparities have been curbed yet a consistent framework for inter-regional economic coordination is lacking.(2) Southern coastal region contributes a significant share to China’s overall regional disparities as the developed cities of Guangdong Province did not create a significant spatial spillover effect on neighboring regions.(3) According to the result of spatial Markov transition probability estimation, spatial factor has played a remarkable role in the evolution of China’s regional economy and proximity to high-level regions will accelerate a region’s transition toward higher levels. Balanced regional development is essential to China’s economic stability and efficiency and achievement of the goal to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects. Based on the DMSP / OLS nighttime lights data of 291 cities at or above prefecture level during 1992-2013, this paper examines the regional disparities and trends of Chinese mainland’s economic development. The findings are as follows: (1) During sample observation period, China’s overall regional disparities generally did not under some volatility; China’s intra-regional disparities have been curbed yet a consistent framework for inter -regional economic coordination is lacking. (2) Southern coastal region contributes a significant share to China’s overall regional disparities as the developed cities of Guangdong Province did not create a significant spatial spillover effect on neighboring regions. (3) According to the result of spatial Markov transition probability estimation, spatial factor has played a remarkable role in the evolution of China’s regional economy and proximity to high-level regions will accelerate a region’s transition toward higher levels.