In this study, Taicang and Kunshan cities of Jiangsu Province were taken as the study areas, by integrating current land use types with historical soil map data, indoor analysis used to identify the regions experienced obvious changes in land use types. Additionally, field typical survey points were established through reconnaissance to assess the latent impacts of the conversion from paddy fields to other agricultural fields on soil types. The results showed that over the past four decades, the predominant land use change in Taicang and Kunshan was paddy fields changed into other agricultural fields (such as water-irrigated fields, dryland, orchards, forests and grasslands), accounting for 98.92% and 98.15% of the land use changes in each city, respectively. These substantial shifts in land use types significantly influenced soil types, leading to alterations in soil properties, including the gradual reduction and even disappearance of the plow-pan in paddy soils. The determination of soil type variations within two study areas was primarily influenced by soil texture and the direction of human-induced land transformations. It is worth noting that further research is required to validate the potential evolution of soil types (for example from paddy soil to fluvo-aquic soil) after paddy fields changed into other agricultural fields for a certain time.