In view of the widening north-south economy gap since 2012, this paper analyzes the evolution of China’s regional development by using the economic and population center of gravity，demonstrates the relative importance of natural endowment to regional development due to the replicability of policy, the strong spillover of knowledge, and the high mobility of factors within a country, analyzes and empirically tests the growth effect of four types of natural endowment, including geographical location, climate, natural resources and land surface, on GDP, per capita GDP and urban size. The results show that Coast and traffic location indicators have significant growth effects on regional development; climate amenities measured by the average minimum temperature in January can significantly promote the growth of GDP and urban size; mineral resources have a growth effect with the development stage, and “resource curse” highlights in the period of economic transformation; the lower the RDLS, the higher the economic and population agglomeration. The Coast dummy variables, the average minimum temperature in January and the “resource curse” well explain the recent widening north-south gap. The regional development is characterized by agglomerating-balancing development, namely, the differentiation of total and the convergence of per capita. In the new era of building a new development pattern, for realizing the coordinated regional development, we need to promote labor division and specialization based on local natural endowment, deepen reform to promote the flow and overall planning of factors and resources, optimize business environment and stimulating development vitality of market entities.