Physical geography is a basic discipline of natural science. Since its research object is the natural environment, it is closely related to human survival and development. China's natural environment is complex and diverse; therefore, according to national demand and regional development needs, physical geographers have also made remarkable achievements in applied foundation and application, making important contributions to the planning of national major economic construction and social development, protection of macro-ecosystem and resources and environment, and regional sustainable development. This paper summarizes the practice and application of physical geography in China in the last 70 years (1949-2019), differences between the natural environment and natural zoning, land use/cover change, natural disasters and risk prevention and control, the process of desertification and its administration, lower-yield field transformation of Huang-Huai-Hai Plain, engineering construction of permafrost areas, geochemical element abnormity and endemic disease prevention and control, positioning observation of natural geographical factors, geographical spatial heterogeneity identification, and geographical detector. Finally, it proposes the future application research directions of physical geography.