Abstract: Köppen climate classification,which is based on temperature and precipitation,has been used worldwide. Beside temperature and precipitation,the distribution of natural vegetation is also considered as a major reference for the system. With clear quantitative limits,the classification system can be easily used to distinguish different climate types. A variety of climatic classification methods have been tried in China to explore Chinese climate classification and climate change in recent years,but most of them are not in line with international classification methods. In this paper,the Köppen climate classification was used to classify the climate zones of China, and 7 climate subtyps,including a,b,c,d,h,k,G,were considered. China DEM(http://www.ngdc.noaa.gov), China monthly surface air temperature and surface precipitation 0.5°×0.5° gridded dataset(http://cdc.cma.gov.cn) were used to classify the climate zones. According to the results,there are 4 major climate zones,including arid climate(B),warm temperate climates(C)and snow climates(D)and polar climates(E). Major climatic types include steppe climate(Bs),desert climate(Bw),warm temperate climate with dry winter(Cw),warm temperate climate,fully humid(Cf),snow temperate climate with dry winter(Dw),tundra climate(ET). The results of Köppen climate classification were compared with climate zones from other climate classification. Decadal climate change processes of China have been discussed according to variability of climate zone. From 1961 to 2010,the global warming in China was very obvious,northern China and the eastern part of northwest China have been drier during the period while the western part of northwest China has become wetter,the arid climate zone expended in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau due to increasing temperature,the changing trend of precipitation is not obvious in southern China. But from 2011 to 2013,most of China was becoming cold and wet.

Key words: Kö, ppen-Geiger climate classification, climate division, climate change, China