Driven by economic factor, China's aquaculture expands and intensifies rapidly, meanwhile, the restrictions of land, fresh water and fishmeal to aquaculture development have become increasingly obvious, N and P emission, carbon footprint and ecological footprint of aquaculture systems are increasing significantly. Therefore, development pattern of China's aquaculture needs to be remoulded in a way of ecological intensification. From the multidimensional and sustainable development perspectives,it can be inferred that, large inland waters (lakes and reservoirs) in China are suitable only for aquaculture without feeding; coastal maricultures (sheltered waters or shallow waters, <10 m in depth and <2 km from the coast) are suitable only for extractive species farming; offshore maricultures (10-50 m in depth, >2 km from the coast) can develop various maricultures combined with sea ranching; far offshore mariculture (>50 m in depth, high sea or EEZ) for fish farming with steel frame cages or vessels will have a bright future. There is a long way to go for the ecological intensification of pond aquaculture and for reconstructing recirculating aquaculture systems to industrialized solar aquaculture systems.