The Common Land Model (CoLM) was coupled with the IAP Dynamic Global Vegetation Model (IAP-DGVM), and the performance of this combined CoLM-IAP model was evaluated. Offline simulations using both the original Common Land Model (CoLM-LPJ) and CoLM-IAP were conducted. The CoLM-IAP coupled model showed a significant improvement over CoLM-LPJ, as the deciduous tree distribution decreased over temperate and boreal regions, while the distribution of evergreen trees increased over the tropics. Some biases in CoLM-LPJ were preserved, including the overestimation of evergreen trees in tropical savanna, the underestimation of boreal evergreen trees, and the absence of boreal shrubs. However, most of these biases did not exist in a further coupled simulation of IAP-DGVM with the Community Land Model (CLM), for which the parameters of IAP-DGVM were optimized. This implies that further improvement is needed to deal with the differences between CoLM and CLM in parameterizations of land-based physical and biochemical processes.