High-speed rail station-area typology in China’s county-level cities: intercity relations and land-finance dependence dynamics

National classifications of Chinese high-speed rail (HSR) station areas exist; none distinguishes county-level cities as a tier or reads land-use composition together with host-city intercity relations and the fiscal path after opening. This study asks what types recur, how intercity relations relate to them, and how land-finance dependence shifts after opening. Four types emerge from five land-use composition shares for 138 county-level cities: high-intensity residential–commercial, moderate-intensity public-service, moderate-intensity green-space, and low-intensity production–infrastructure. Intercity relations enter as railway-service connectivity, inward enterprise linkage, and hub-city accessibility. The three dimensions are jointly associated with type; after multiplicity correction only inward enterprise linkage retains a conditional association, and the green-space and production–infrastructure types sit below the residential–commercial type on that dimension. After opening, land-finance dependence follows type-specific paths: only the production–infrastructure type shows a detectable post-opening fall in a sixteen-year panel. The types order along both Node–Place axes yet only loosely match the quadrants. Theoretically, the typology gives the county-level tier its own classification and adds composition to Node–Place comparison. Practically, it gives planners a screening classification ordering local assessment by type, corporate position, and fiscal path.