Abstract:The world has become warmer over the past century, which is associated with the increase of hot days and warm nights, and the reduction of cool days and cold nights. Based on the homogenized daily temperature data from 542 Chinese stations during 1960-2012, this paper calculated the several extreme temperature indicators series, by dividing China into 8 sub regions, and using percentile method of defining extreme high and low temperature threshold. Meanwhile, using time trend analysis, we analyzed the spatio temporal distribution and varying tendency features of extreme temperatures and the indices in China. The results show that with the global warming, the increasing trends of the minimum and the maximum temperature are all statistically significant over most regions of China, except in Southwest China, during the last 53 years, of which temperature increases most in Northeast China. The increase of seasonal extreme temperature is the most in winter, but the least in summer. Minimum temperature is significantly increased, so is the maximum temperature, but the increasing magnitude of the minimum temperature is higher than that of the maximum counterpart. The frequency of cold days and cold nights show a decreasing trend, while the warm nights and warm days has increased. The change of cold night index is most prominent, presenting the phenomenon of regional differences. These results can provide some reference for regional assessment and further researches.