In the context of 1956～2000 monthly rainfall data at 743 stations over China,regional normal mean condition,inter-decadal change and trends of annual and seasonal precipitation are analyzed at drainage basins scale.The changes of mean precipitation between 1956～1979 and 1980～2000 periods were compared for 10 drainage basins.The results show that the preci-pitations are less with larger variability and water resources are insufficient and more instable in river basins of northern China.As for basins in southern China,precipitation is abundant with small variability and water resources are relatively sufficient and stable.In the recent 45 years,the trends of annual precipitations for the northern basins have been generally negative,with the decrease of the 1990s being the most remarkable.On the other hand,the increasing tendency of precipitation is a major feature for the southern basins.In the 1990s,the mean annual precipitations of the southern basins exceed mostly those of the 1980s,particularly in the areas south of the Yangtze River.For seasonal precipitation,obvious decreasing tendencies mainly occurred in summer and autumn,while winter and spring experienced a slight increasing tendency for most of the basins.In the last 20 years,the tendencies of precipitations in most of the basins are similar with those for the 1956～2000 period.The river basins in Northwest China are the only basins among the ten where precipitation of the four seasons all experienced an increasing trend.