Abstract: In order to reveal the time series characteristics of ozone concentration in atmospheric background area in China, we used the air ozone monitoring data of 15 background air monitoring stations and 337 cities from 2016 to 2020 to compare the annual, seasonal and daily change trends of ozone concentration in the atmospheric background and urban area. The results show that: (1) The annual average ozone concentration in the atmospheric background area is higher than cites, while the annual 90 percentage ozone concentration is lower than cities. The variation of annual average and 90% ozone concentration is similar between atmospheric background area and cities. (2) The ozone concentration in the atmospheric background and urban areas increase by 1.5 and 2.0 µg/m³ per year, respectively. (3) The seasonal variation of ozone concentration in the atmospheric background area is different from urban area and the background area in the East Asia Pacific Rim. The highest background ozone concentration (89 µg/m³) occurs in spring, and there is no significant variation of the background ozone concentration between summer (74 µg/m³), autumn (75 µg/m³) and winter (72 µg/m³). (4) The daily ozone variation in some atmospheric background areas is different from neighboring city and there is no peak-to-valley distribution. However, under the transport effect of ozone precursors from the neighboring cities, the daily ozone variation in some atmospheric background areas is similar to the neighboring cities and has a significant peak-to-valley distribution. Thus, the time-series variation of ozone concentration in air background area is different from urban area, and the ozone concentration in background and urban areas both increase rapidly. Besides, ozone concentration in some background areas in China is affected by the transport of ozone precursors from neighboring cities.