Community in China initially refers to the urban grassroots governance unit under the system of separated administration of urban area and rural area. However,the generalization of the concept of community obfuscates its connotations and attributes. This paper discusses the differences of connotations and attributes between urban and rural communities,and then reconstructs the classification system of the community,dividing it into “nominal community” and “substantive community” based on the dual dimension of land property and urban public service supplying mechanism. This is expected to help to build a system of urban and rural community governance,featured by commonality and individuality,and toplevel design and localization in the new era of transition to urban-rural co-governance.