【Objective】The objective was to study the content of heavy metals in soils of vegetable lands systematically through assessment objectively to promote the development of vegetable production with high quality and efficiency. 【Methods】Statistical analysis of reported data on the heavy metals in Chinese vegetable plantation soils, from previous literature published since 1989, was carried out systematically in this investigation.【Results】 It is concluded that Zn, Cr, Cu had relatively high concentrations while the mean concentrations of toxic metals, As, Hg, Cd was 8.03、0.12、0.28mg•kg-1 separately with comparatively low concentrations in Chinese vegetable land. Comparing to Chinese Soil Quality Criterion GB 15618-1995 (6.5
Hg > As> Zn > Cu > Cr > Pb. When compared among different regions, the relatively serious heavy metal contamination was found in the eastern China vegetable land and the main contamination elements were Cd、Hg、Zn as well as As in some extent. In the mid region, vegetable plantation soil was mainly polluted by As and Cd. In the meanwhile, Cd, Cu and As contamination was also observed in some degree in the west region of China. Comparing to the five vegetable plantation land patterns, the highest concentration of As, Cd, Hg and Zn occurred in the industrial/sewage irrigation vegetable land, especially for Hg with 2.36mg•kg-1 content averagely which is 10.5~21.1 times higher than other four types of vegetable lands. The highest concentration of Cu and Cr occurred in greenhouse vegetable land soils, and urban vegetable land soil had the highest Pb content comparing to other types of vegetable plantation land patterns. Through analyzing heavy metal content under different vegetable land pattern, it was found that vegetable producing base soil had relatively low heavy metal concentrations except for Pb with a little higher amount in surburb. The soil quality of common vegetable land was good with the lowest concentrations for most heavy metals. 【Conclusion】Under present utilization patterns of vegetable land, the soil quality in Chinese vegetable base land was good with comparatively low concentrations of heavy metals and mostly not exceeding the grade II level of Chinese Soil Quality Criterion GB 15618-1995 (6.5
