Carrying out a comprehensive and comparative study on the characteristics of land use transition in typical mountainous areas in China can essentially reveal the dynamic changes in the relationship between man and land. It’s significant to research on the land use transition of the mountain-basin system, for the land use transition and sustainable land use in mountainous areas. This study took four mountain-basin systems in Puding county of Guizhou province, Southwest China as a typical case. Based on high-resolution remote sensing images for 1973-2020, combined with field survey to verify data, we used the ArcGIS platform’s land use transfer matrix and importance value index method to quantitatively analyze the characteristic of land use transition of typical mountain-basin systems in the past 50 years. Furthermore, this study probed the stage and diversity of land use transition and inspirations of rural revitalization. The results showed that: (1) The basin system was based on the transition of cultivated land, which was mainly transformed into agricultural facility land, garden land and transportation land. Affected by the transition of cultivated land, the land use function had transformed from a single traditional agricultural production function to a complex modern agricultural production function. The mountain system was dominated by the transition of cultivated land, which was transformed into forest land. With the shrinkage of cultivated land, its land use function was dominated by a single ecological conservation function. (2) There were significant differences in the stage and evolutionary path of the land use transition in the mountain-basin system, going through a single-function dominant stage, a single-function to multi-function transition stage and a multi-function combined stage. The land use of the basin system was transformed into non-agriculturalization, non-grain and intensification. Nevertheless, the land use in the mountain system became more extensive and marginalized. (3) The combined effects of physical factors, socioeconomic factors, policies and actors have driven the transition of land use in the mountain-basin system. The results provide a scientific reference for rural land use transition and sustainable development.