Objective To intellectual development of urban and rural children in Xiamen through wechsler intelligence scales of different age. Methods A total of 233 children aged 6-16 years from urban and rural areas in Xiamen were enrolled in this study by random stratified sampling method. C-WISC and WISC-Ⅳ were used to measure the IQ. Results In urban children，the coding and digit span score in WISC-Ⅳ was significantly lower than the corresponding score in the C-WISC （P＜ 0.05）；the block design score in WISC-Ⅳ was significantly lower than the corresponding score in C-WISC（P＜ 0.05）；the verbal intelligence quotient scorein WISC-Ⅳ was significantly higher than the corresponding score in C-WISC（P＜ 0.05）；the similarities score in WISC-Ⅳ was significantly higher than the corresponding score in C-WISC（P＜ 0.05）. And there were no significant differences in the scores of comprehension，perception reasoning，total intelligence quotient between the two methods （P＞ 0.05）. However，in rural children，each score in WISC-Ⅳ were significantly lower than the corresponding score in C-WISC （P＜ 0.05）. Conclusions There is difference on intellectual development between urban and rural children in Xiamen. Urban children’s intellectual development is balanced，but rural children’s intellectual development is lagging behind.