The land use pattern in a certain region in different periods was usually driven by natural, social, and economical factors. The driving mechanisms varied in different periods. North Shanxi province, located in the farming-pastoral ecotone of northern China, was chosen as the research area. The objectives of this study were to analyze the land use/cover change (LUCC) pattern in north Shanxi province, and to estimate the different driving mechanisms of the LUCC in different historical periods. A comprehensive method combining the unsupervised classification and the visual interpretation was used to extract the LUCC information in the study area from 1986 to 2010. The canonical correspondence analysis was employed to assess the natural and anthropogenic driving forces of the LUCC. The results indicated that cropland, grassland, and woodland were major land use types in the whole investigation period. Main land-use transferring types included the interconversions between grassland and cropland, as well as woodland and grassland. Population density, per capita gross domestic product (GDP), precipitation, slope, and elevation were the major driving forces of the LUCC. In 1986~1995, the driving forces of the LUCC were mainly from the demands of the population growth and the economy development. Later, the driving forces from the topographical elements such as elevation and slope became more and more important. The economic development and population growth promote the transitions from grassland and cropland to residential land and industrial land. Meanwhile, the conversions between grassland and woodland are mainly driven by natural factors such as slope, elevation, and precipitation.