Abstract: To understand trends and epidemiological characters of syphilis past years in China and provide scientific basis for making control strategies.From 1979 to 1998,syphilis case-reporting data collected from all provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities were analyzed with epidemiological methods.Results Since first case of syphilis was reported in Chongqing in 1979,the reported cases have increased year by year,especially after 1993, they raised sharply.The incidence rate of syphilis was 4.31/100, 000 in the country in 1998.which was as 25 times as that in 1993.In the period of 1993-1998,annual average growth of incidence rate of syphilis was 90.9%.Syphilis spread from coastal opening cities to inland urban area,then to rural area.There were 4 regions with high incidence rate of syphilis in 1998(the Yangtse Delta,the Zhujiang River Deita,the Nontheast,Beijing and Tianjin area),and there was a great difference in incidence and growth of syphilis in different areas.the ratio of male and felmale cases was reducing from 1.72:1 in 1991 to 1.10:1 in 1998.20agegroup rate was the highest and 10-14 was the lowest.Secondary syphilis cases have been more than that of primary ones since 1996.There was highly significant between in constitutes of clinical stage of syphilis cases of male and female(P<0.001), which primary syphilis was tlle most common in male and secondary ones in felmale.Recently the propotion ofsyphilis in 8 sexually transmitted diseases mounted gradually from 1.53% in 1994 to 8.50% in 1998.The study indicated that the Epidemiological situation of Syphilis in China became severer,we should pay seriously attention to that.