Abstract: Temperature change is of great importance in global change science. Remarkable progress has been made in studies of the temperature change in China during the recent 100 years or more. Some time series provide surface air temperatures averaged over China. Correlations between the series range from 0.73 to 0.97. The achievements mainly include the following: improving the quality, increasing the coverage of data, raising the homogeneity of time series and enlarging the reliability of the results etc. Analysis shows that the warming rate of annual mean temperature in China during 1906-2005 is (0.78±0.27)℃; 2007 is probably the warmest year. However, most of the series except those with complete coverage mainly reflect the temperature change over eastern China before the 1920s or 1930s, so caution must be taken in examination of temperature change.

Key words: recent 100 years, climate change, air temperature series, estimation of warming rate, global warming