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 score in 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.