As environmental problems in Mainland China are receiving global increasing attentions, environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is adopted here to validate time route of improvement for its various areas.. The results indicate that some areas, such as Shanghai, Tibet, Guizhou, Jilin and Beijing have overstepped their inflection points; Liaoning, Anhui, Fujian, Hainan and Qinghai have no inflection points, and meanwhile it is about seven years for the others areas take to reach their inflection points. Therefore, it is essential to lay down some policies to change or advance the process of reaching inflection point for each area respectively. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.