This paper analyzes the spatial and temporal variation of NDVI and its response to climatic factors in Guangxi during 1998-2012 by using trend analysis, standard deviation, Hurst index, and correlation coefficient methods. The analyzed data including SPOT VEGETATION NDVI data and temperature/ precipitation data were collected from meteorological stations. The results indicated that: 1) The annual NDVI increased from 1998 to 2012, with the increasing rate of the karst region being slightly faster than the non-karst region; 2) the spatial distribution of mean NDVI was low in the center and high in the periphery, and the karst region was lower than the non-karst region; the fluctuation of NDVI varied from medium to low. 3) areas with improved NDVI values accounted for 96.62% of the total, and those areas were slightly lower in the karst region compared with the non-karst region; the areas where Hurst index was sustainable occupied 95.26% of the total, and those areas were lower in the karst region than the non-karst region; The overall vegetation coverage in the future showed a trend of continuous improvement. 4) The correlation coefficient between NDVI and the preceding 2 months' precipitation and the preceding 1 month's temperature were the maximum; the maximum lag time of NDVI to temperature and precipitation were 1-2 months, and 2-3 months, respectively. Vegetation in the karst area was more sensitive to the variation of precipitation and temperature. The influence degree and the response time among different vegetation types were different, and the same vegetation type's response time to the variation of temperature was shorter than that of precipitation.