Carbon exchange between the atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems is one of the key processes in biogeochemical cycles. Including plant photosynthesis and biological respiration, the exchange process directly determines the ecosystem functions of material production, diversity maintenance and climate regulation. Based on carbon fluxes data collected from existing literature published during 2000 -2015, we built the dataset of production and respiration in Chinese typical terrestrial ecosystems. The dataset contained multiple site-year records of gross primary production, ecosystem respiration and net ecosystem production from 57 typical terrestrial ecosystems including forest, grassland, cropland and wetland in China. In addition, the biologicaland climatic information, such as biome type, vegetation type, mean annual temperature and precipitation, were compiled. This dataset provides important data resources for evaluation of regional carbon budget, assessment of eco-environment carrying capacity, studies of climate change and optimization of biogeochemical cycle models.