Abstract: Emerging as an urban development mode that attempts to effectively promote the sustainable feedback between land use and transport, transit oriented development (TOD) emphasizes the land use development surrounding the public transit node. Many cases across the world have showed the success of TOD and TOD has been adopted as a policy tool for China?s territorial spatial governance. It requires a literature review to inform the application and practice of TOD in China. From a dual perspective of theory and methodology, this paper systematically reviewed related studies of TOD from four aspects, namely the TOD conceptualization, the typology, the consequences and the optimization. Based on the review, challenges both in theory and in methodology were summarized and implications for China?s territorial spatial governance were discussed, in order to provide references for formulating efficient TOD planning and strategies.