Currently, Chinese cities are entering into a new phase of inventory regeneration. In terms of multiple land-use, inventory regeneration study, urban crisis management, etc., this research on “interim use” can offer new ideas and open up a new frontier. The paper firstly describes its development and studies on European countries exemplified by Germany. Compared with the European studies, the paper enumerates the development state of “interim use” in urban China exemplified by Shanghai, and also briefly examines the relevant research in China. On the basis of the preceding work, it explores the concept, characteristics, and mechanism of “interim use”. It is defined as a kind of use-mode which exists in the transitional period from an original use-mode imposed on a space to a new one. Its activities have not been stipulated and coded and are not necessarily related with the original or new mode. With provisionality, instability, spatial vacancy as its characteristics, its mechanism depends on the value contrast between the one created by the interim use and the one by the anticipated use. Finally, the paper summarizes the meaning and necessity to make such research on “interim use” in the context of urban China.