Abstract:Water cycle, which is significantly affected by climate change， is the most active and important part in the interaction among ocean, land and atmosphere. This paper reviews the impact of climate change on global water cycle, and evaluates the changes of water cycle elements including atmospheric water vapor, precipitation, evapotranspiration and surface runoff and water vapor in China since the 1960s. Climate warming has strengthened the global water cycle, showing that global near surface and tropospheric speci fic humidity have increased since 1970s. However, due to the insufficient observation, the trend of various variables in the water cycle still remains considerably uncertain. Moreover, due to interaction between the increase of tropical water vapor and the weakening of the circulation, the influence of climate change on regional water cycle is more uncertain. Obvious changes of regional water cycle in China have been found since 1960s. The atmospheric water vapor and its budget show up an increasing trend after 1980s. No obvious changes in total precipitation, but largely spatial difference of regional precipitation can be found in China since 1960s. Moreover, average evapotranspiration increases slightly, while the mean surface runoff decreases. Since the 21st Century, the precipitation transformed from evapotranspiration has been increa sing, and the internal water cycle is more active than before.