Ecological view is a kind of research perspective combining multiple attributes of rural settlements including ecological, social, cultural, spatial attributes and so on. A sample consisted of 68 observations, including 37 Hakka settlements, 30 Local settlements and 1 new immigrant settlement was achieved from field research, which was conducted in 98 traditional rural settlements among the total 300 in Yonghan town, Longmen County, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, China. All of these observations’ landscape patches followed the basic mode of "Houlong hill + building complex + open land + fish pond + arable land" or its variants. Houlong hill was a patch located in the back of each settlement on which the trees were prohibited to be cut. Building complex was a place where all residents inhabited. Open land was a public open space between building complex and fish pond. Fish pond was situated in the front of a settlement, always with a shape of half-moon. Arable land was distributed around settlements, which was the landscape matrix of settlements in the flat terrain. Such a similar landscape structure was due to similar ecological view. The ecological view of these settlements mainly consisted of three kinds of factors: social, economic and cultural factors. These three kinds of factors affected jointly the location, scale and structure of these traditional rural settlements. Social factors mainly included the clan system, close cooperation and relatively equal relationships among members of the same settlement as well as competitions among different settlements. Social factors led to the integrity and defensive characteristic of each settlement. They also caused the emergence of a large area of public space and the axial symmetry of the layout of each settlement. Economic factors mainly included food and living needs for survival, which were reflected in the landscape structure of settlements: arable land and fish pond provided foods for each settlement, building complex and open land provided spaces for human habitation and activities. The main content of cultural factors was Fengshui, which reflected the spiritual needs of local residents for achieving flourishing population, accessing to wealth and avoiding misfortune. Fengshui had decisive influences on site selection, orientation and scale of each settlement, although these influences were not precisely quantifiable. Fengshui caused the existence of Houlong hill and residents’ strict protection for it, although it has no direct economic output. Fengshui also caused the existence of fish pond and made it a semi-circular shape with a strong symbolic meaning. Succession has been occurring along with the implementation of the Reform and Open policy in China from the year 1978. The main performance was that residents gradually moved out from the old buildings of settlements and built new houses in their neighborhoods. In the perspective of ecological view, the succession attributed to the greatly improved status of economic factors, the reduced influence of Fengshui and the great changes of social structure of these settlements. Problems emerged in the succession such as land waste, inadequate protection of historical heritages, conflict between ecological protection and economic development, disregard of the continuation of historical culture. A new kind of ecological view and a sustainable development mode must be developed based on protection and regeneration of traditional rural settlements to resolve the problems emerging in the succession.