Since China's reform and opening up, Shenzhen has experienced rapid urbanization and dramatic changes in landscape patterns. On the basis of the land use dataset of Shenzhen city from 1996 to 2015, this study utilized landscape metrics, transition matrix and, expansion index to detect the spatiotemporal changes of urban landscape pattern, which analyzed the trend of landscape transfer and urban expansion. Also the major driving forces for landscape pattern changes on municipal and district scales were identified through the Binary Logit regression model. The results showed that: (1) the dominance of construction land landscape in Shenzhen gradually increased during the study period, with the construction land increasing by 15.81%, which occupied a large area of woodland (157.59 km2). The edge-expansion and infilling are the two main growth types of newly developed urban land, accounting for 61.19% and 36.27% respectively. (2) The rapid urbanization occurred from 1996 to 2006, during which landscape diversity and uniformity increased. (3) There was a low-speed urbanization transition from 2006 to 2015, during which landscape fragmentation intensified. The boundaries of the built-up areas became complex. However, due to the influence of land policy and red line of ecological protection, the rate of urban expansion slowed down. The pattern of urban expansion was mainly west-oriented, with the center continuing to shift northwards. (4) On the municipal scale, the GDP density and population density had a significant positive impact on the evolution of landscape pattern, while the ecological control line, elevation, slope and the distance to the road had a significant negative impact. The driving factors had the difference in scale and region, with GDP in Baoan, Nanshan and Pingshan districts, population growth in Baoan and Longhua districts, and traffic accessibility in Dapeng and Longgang districts being the most prominent drivers, respectively. This study can provide scientific practice for landscape pattern change in the process of rapid urban expansion in China.