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Dissolved carbon in lakes play a vital role in the global carbon cycling. The concentration and dynamics of lake dissolved carbon can be influenced by both the surrounding landscape and a combination of physical, chemical and biological processes within the lakes themselves. From 2009 to 2016, we conducted a large-scale assessment of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in 249 lakes across a diverse range of climatic, geopedologic, topographical and hydrological conditions in five Chinese limnetic regions: the East Limnetic Region (ELR), the Northeast Limnetic Region (NLR), the Inner Mongolia-Xinjiang Limnetic Region (MXR), the Yungui Limnetic Region (YGR), and the Tibet-Qinghai Limnetic Region (TQR). We found that the density of the organic matter in the soil in the surrounding landscape plays an important role in the DOC and DIC in lake water, as was evidenced by the high DOC and DIC levels in the NLR, where the soil is respectively organically rich. Conditions in the arid and semi-arid environments (i.e. TQR and MXR) have created a number of brackish/saline lakes and here we found that, DOC and DIC levels (median: 21.79 and 93.72 mg/L, respectively) are significantly higher than those in the freshwater lakes (median: 5.80 and 29.38 mg/L). It also appears to be the case that the trophic state of freshwater lakes influences the spatial variation of DOC. This can be seen in the relationships between DOC and trophic state index (TSI) in agriculturally-dominated regions such as the ELR (R-2 = 0.59, p < 0.01), NLR (R-2 = 0.65, p < 0.001), and YGR (R-2 = 0.78, p < 0.001). Additionally, a close relationship between DOC and DIC can be found in lake waters with different trophic states (eutrophic: slp = 0.63, R-2 = 0.69; mesotrophic: slp = 1.03, R-2 = 0.65; oligotrophic: slp = 1.00, R-2 = 0.64). This indicates that human activities influence the quantity and quality of dissolved carbon in inland water across China. This study is able to provide insights regarding the potential effects of climate change and changes in land-use upon the amount of dissolved carbon in lake water.