The number of tourist attractions has been growing rapidly since the quality rating system of A-grade tourist attractions was implemented in China since 2001, and the spatial distribution is characterized by obvious expansion, agglomeration and regional differentiation. On the basis of the national A-grade tourist attractions in four time sections (2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016), the spatial and temporal evolutions of tourist attractions are analyzed by adopting GIS spatial analysis methods, such as standard deviation ellipse, kernel density estimation, and nearest neighbor indicator. The results indicate that: (1) the spatial pattern of A-grade tourist attractions presents a diffusion distribution and is highly consistent with the "Hu Huanyong Line"; the center of gravity migrated to the northeast by south in 2001-2016. (2) The agglomeration of A-grade tourist attractions scope expands; the agglomeration phenomenon becomes much more obvious. In 2001, the number of A-grade tourist attractions agglomeration areas was only 4; in 2006 and 2011, with the rapid growth, the number of agglomeration areas increased to 19 and 40, respectively; in 2016, the number increased to 62. (3) The agglomeration degree strengthens; the agglomeration degrees of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and Yangtze River Delta are the highest. Among them, the kernel densities in Beijing and South Jiangsu are more than 100 per 100,000 square meters. (4) The gathering trend of high-grade (4A and 5A) tourist attractions are basically consistent with that of national A-grade tourist attractions. The study also discussed the agglomeration area of A-grade tourist attractions, which presents the characteristic such as the tourism resource dependence, and the dual drivers of supply and demand may be the reasons for A-grade tourist attractions agglomeration. In addition, the agglomeration area of A-grade tourist attractions had the core and edge structure with the similar distance between two adjacent kernel density levels. It is hereby that the concept of ‘tourist attraction cluster’ is put forward in order to further theoretical and systematic research on the spatial and temporal patterns of tourist attractions, and provide the scientific reference for the layout optimization of national tourism productivity and the development of the regional economy in China.