As one of the most sensitive region to climate change and human activities in arid,semi-arid and sub-humid areas,13 provinces in northern China have been recognized as a hot spot on desertification study.A linear regression method was performed to analyze the annual variations trends of GIMMS NDVI and precipitation data.And also,the correlation and anomaly of SigmaNDVI and precipitation in northern province for the period of 1982-2006 were further investigated.The results showed that overall,the trend of desertification slowed down for the 13 provinces in northern China during the 25 years.The vegetation coverage was significantly down increasing, in which the number of pixels with significant increase were upto 35.3%,and the decreased one accounted for only 7.2%.SigmaNDVI and precipitation anomaly were mainly in the second and third quadrant.This indicates that despite the precipitation played a major role in vegetation changes in the northern region, it did not fully explain the increasing trend of vegetation.In addition to precipitation,vegetation increase was also influenced by anthropogenic factors,such as afforestation activity,which was an important driving force.The northeastern part of Inner Mongolia and Sanjiang Plain of Northeast China showing the trend of desertification,no significant correlation in most parts of the precipitation,indicating that the effect of precipitation in the region was weak,mainly aused by human activities and other factors.