The spatio-temporal changes of anthropogenic heat flux (Q_a) in 1980~2015 over China were investigated based on the statistical and gridded population data and the statistics of energy consumption. The surface net solar radiation (R_n) was used to describe the impact of Q_a on land surface energy balance. The results showed that the national average Q_a increased from 0.07W/m~2 in 1980 to 0.45W/m~2 in 2015, with an increasing trend of 0.11W/m~2/10a(P<0.001). The national average Q_a in 2015 accounted for 27% of the global radiative forcing resulting from anthropogenic CO_2 emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution. The sites with aQ_a more than 1.00W/m~2 extended from spotted distribution to continuous areasfrom1990 to 2015, and its area accountedfor 10% of China's total area in 2015. Moreover, the changeof R_n was slightlyfaster than that of Q_a, but not significantly (P=0.381). The mean Q_a in urban areas of the 31provincial capital cities ranged from 1 to 32W/m~2 and the mean intensity was up to17W/m~2 in 2015. The ratio of mean Q_a to mean R_n(149W/m~2) of the 31capital cities on average was approximately12%. Except for Lhasa, the maximum pixel (0.5min*0.5min) value of Q_a exceeded120W/m~2 ineach city that implying the local energy balancehas already been changed substantially. We strongly suggested that anthropogenic heat release should be considered in the study of urban climate simulation, regional climate simulation and assessment, and making coping strategy about climate change for better strategy to slow down the warming trend.