Here, Corynebacterium glutamicum was systematically engineered for rapid non-natural xylose metabolism and the underlying adaptations were elucidated by combining metabolic engineering, adaptive laboratory evolution and systems biology techniques. A plasmid-free, stable and efficient xylose-utilizing chassis strain, named CGS15, was reconstructed with both a rapid specific growth rate of 0.341 h-1 on xylose and an excellent co-utilization of glucose and xylose at a ratio of about 2:1.