The paper aims to investigate the differences of arable and built land use change at the county level in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region. Three urban-rural linkage patterns are identified in this region: urban, peri-urban and periphery areas. Empirical analysis shows that land use change in the urban areas is faster than that in the peri-urban and periphery areas, and that the driving factors to the land use change in each pattern are also different. Unlike previous studies, the paper divides this region in terms of the resource flows and agglomeration between urban and rural areas. The hypothesis is that land use change differentiates due to the differences of resource flows and agglomeration in different places. The paper finally emphasizes the role of peri-urban areas as the interface between urban and periphery areas for coordinating arable and built land change in this region in the future.