Abstract: Heavy precipitation was defined separately according to the intensity and frequency of extremely heavy precipitation based on the precipitation data obtained from 726 meteorological stations in China from 1961 to 2013.The spatial and temporal variations of heavy precipitation over China in the recent 50a were analyzed using the methods of Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function (REOF),wavelet analysis,and the Mann-Kendall trend test.An indicator for heavy precipitation was defined by the intensity of extremely heavy precipitation.Based on this indicator,four regions with high load values are distinguished,most regions concentrate in the middle of eastern China and the other in the southern and southwestern China.Heavy precipitation events in different regions increase significantly (p < 0.05),all with an abrupt change in the early 1980s.The strongest energy fluctuation over the four regions occurs in the periods of 1995-2005,1997-2010,1996-2010,and 1961-2013,respectively.The other indicator for heavy precipitation defined by the frequency of extremely heavy precipitation shows that the heavy precipitation events increase significantly in some regions of the middle and eastern China in the second EOF mode (P<0.1).