The urban landscape system in China profoundly integrates both natural and artificial elements, encapsulating rich and significant connotations that serve as a direct representation of the city’s historical and cultural heritage. Currently, most research on landscape systems focuses on ancient capitals of various dynasties, while less attention is paid to distinctive local cities with lower visibility. This paper, from the perspective of landscape architecture, selects the well-preserved ancient city of Huili, located on the southwestern border, as the research object. Through literature review, field investigation and research analysis, with the background of the city’s development and evolution, it selects the Ming and Qing dynasties as key time slices, strengthens the connection of the national landscape context, sorts out the landscape elements of mountains, water, fields and cities, and combines the distinctive features of Huili Ancient City to summarize the three-scale relationship of “city - suburb - wilderness”. Furthermore, it encapsulates the rationale behind the formation of Huili Ancient City from the perspectives of natural, commercial, and military aspects. In doing so, it distills valuable insights from the traditional landscape system construction of the city and strategically proposes reference factors for the preservation and development of the ancient site. The ultimate goal is to furnish concepts for the planning and construction of analogous cities, as well as for the safeguarding of heritage.