We investigated the phylogeographic history of Kalopanax septemlobus, one of the most widespread temperate tree species in East Asia using a combined phylogeographic and palaeodistribution modelling approach. A major phylogeographic break in Central China corresponded with those of other temperate species and spatial delineation of the two forest subkingdoms of East Asia, suggesting that temperate forests have been isolated in both East and Central-Southwest China possibly for multiple glacial-interglacial cycles. Evidence for multiple glacial refugia was found in most of its current range, while lineage admixture and absence of private alleles/haplotypes in Hokkaido and the northern Korean Peninsula are consistent with the postglacial origin of those populations, where the species was predicted to have been extirpated during the last glacial period. Overall, this study provides strong evidence that differential impacts of Quaternary climate oscillation associated with landscape heterogeneity have shaped the genetic structure of a wide ranging temperate tree in East Asia.