Abstract: At present, there are still a large number of poverty-stricken counties in the western part of China. Although the government has recently increased financial support for rural areas, and the policy guidelines have been steadily tilting toward rural areas, especially poor rural areas, rural poverty is still difficult to resolve. In order to reasonably determine the optimal layout direction of rural settlements in poor mountainous areas, and put forward some scientific guidance in the rural land remediation and new rural construction in mountainous areas, this paper took Xundian Hui and Yi Autonomous County, a former national poverty-stricken county that was out of poverty in 2018, as a research area, and used the methods of remote sensing interpretation, GIS analysis, landscape shape index model, buffer analysis, Kernel density estimation and Getis-Ord Gi* to study the evolution characteristics and influencing factors of rural settlements in Xundian County from 2001 to 2017 in terms of space, scale and form. The research results showed that: 1) During 2001-2017, there were some changes in the scale, density, shape and spatial distribution of rural settlements in Xundian County. The main changes were as follows: from 2001 to 2017, the overall scale of rural settlements had expanded significantly, the landscape shape tended to be regular, and the average patch size increased; the characteristics of rural settlements clustering in areas with superior terrain were becoming more and more obvious. The analysis results of kernel density and Getis-Ord Gi* showed that the spatial divergence characteristics of rural settlements patch scales were apparent, and the distribution patterns were gradually expanding from small-scale decentralization to large-scale clustering; 2)The natural geographical factors such as geological and topographical conditions were the basic factors that influencing the distribution pattern of rural settlements in mountainous areas. The basic pattern of spatial distribution of rural settlements in mountainous areas is the result of long-term adaptation to topographic and geomorphological conditions; 3) Socio-economic factors, location factors and policy factors were the important factors influencing the change of spatial distribution. As the urban-rural income gap increased, the rural population of Xundian County flew to urban areas, so rural settlements were more concentrated in urban areas; the results of the neighborhood analysis of towns and roads also indicated that rural settlements tended to be concentrated in the distribution of towns and roads. In addition, the precise poverty alleviation policy with relocation as the main means was another major factor leading to the concentration of rural settlements in the plain areas with superior terrain conditions. According to the study, for mountainous rural areas with scarce natural resources, the poverty alleviation in mountainous areas should rely mainly on industrial assistance rather than policy assistance in the future. The local government should focus on increasing the employment opportunities of farmers and improving the livelihood conditions of farmers. Only in this way can we really help the poor and achieve the rural revitalization. This study can provide a practical guidance for the poverty alleviation work in the rural areas of the southwestern frontiers with frequent geological disasters; also provide a scientific theoretical basis for the optimization of the spatial layout of rural settlements.