Faced with growing demand for water for non agricultural uses – industry, domestic, and hydropower – China has been adopting a range of water saving irrigation practices. A study has been undertaken in two sites in China to identify the water saving practices and policies and determine the impact on water productivity at farm, system, and district level. The sites are the Zhanghe Irrigation System in the Yangtze River Basin approximately 200 km west of Wuhan and the Kaifeng City Prefecture located just south of the Yellow River in Henan Province. The study is being conducted by scientists from Wuhan University, the International Water Management Institute, and the International Rice Research Institute. A first step in this study has been to examine the long term trends in water allocations between agricultural and non-agricultural uses and in crop and water productivity. In both sites there have been substantial gains in crop and water productivity although with a slowing down or modest decline in crop production. In this paper we describe briefly trends in water use and water productivity from the late 1960s until 2000. We describe the range of factors that may have contributed to water savings and gains in water productivity, and understand how these factors play role in different contexts (Yangtze River and Yellow River basins). As our study proceeds we hope to identify more clearly the relative importance of the various factors and some management strategies can be presented to the water managers to improve irrigation efficiency in their districts.