Over the past few decades, Chinese cities have undergone tremendous changes, especially in terms of urban heritage protection. With the shift in the concept of heritage from demolition to protection, a large number of heritage areas have emerged in Chinese cities, that is, urban areas with historical buildings as the theme. This study regards heritage, tourism and commerce as a spatial system and proposes an analytical framework based on map expression. Through case analysis and comparison, the spatial characteristics and evolution of urban heritage areas are revealed. Different from other theoretical studies, this paper combines statistical and cartographic methods to provide a clear spatial expression of heritage areas in China. This study explores urban heritage areas through mapping based on heritage, tourism and commerce, and demonstrates the homogenization of heritage planning goals in different urban contexts.