Geography as a school subject varies in different nations. This comparative study is based on legitimation code analysis of the two countries’ Geography National Curriculum in compulsory secondary education (Year7-9) respectively. It follows with a school case study on Chinese and Swedish teachers' interpretation about development topic in their teaching, which is the process of re-contextualisation in practical classroom when transforming the idea on the paper to action in teaching. The main outcomes show how knowledge is described in the curriculum standards, and the teachers' case study gives insight in how and in what ways we could transform the hypothesis to practice, thus enhance the view of knowledge in the curriculum.