The sustainable agricultural development involves both environmental challenges and production goals to meet growing food demand. However, excessive nitrogen (N) applications are threatening the sustainability of intensive agriculture in the North China Plain (NCP). Improved N management should result in greater N use efficiency (NUE) and producer profit while reducing the risk of environmental contamination. Therefore, developing and disseminating feasible N management strategies that will achieve both high yields and high NUE are crucial. Many recently developed N management strategies have been successful in improving NUE and reducing N losses while achieving similar grain yield as farmer’s practice. The objective of this study was to evaluate different N management strategies for the intensive wheat-maize double cropping system in NCP. Field experiments were conducted from 2008 to 2012 at Quzhou Experiment Station of China Agricultural University in Hebei Province. The six N management strategies evaluated were (i) no N fertilizer as control (N0), (ii) soil mineral N (N_min) test-based in-season root-zoon N management strategy (IRNM-soil N_min), (iii) GreenSeeker-based precision N management strategy (PNM-GS), (iv) green window-based in-season N management strategy (INM-GW), (v) regional optimum N management strategy (RONM), (vi) farmer’s N practice (FNP). The N fertilizer rate determined with IRNM-soil N_min, PNM-GS, INM-GW and RONM were significantly reduced by 45%, 62%, 46% and 40% compared to the FNP, respectively, without significant changes in grain yield. As a result, the IRNM-soil N_min, PNM-GS, INM-GW and RONM increased N use efficiency. Future studies are needed to integrate this strategy into high yield crop management system to achieve both high yield and high NUE simultaneously for food security and sustainable development.