The temporal and spatial distribution characteristics of lightning events in China from 1961 to 2016 are calculated by using the yearly dataset of 2 481 stations' lightning days. The results show that: On the dimension of time, the average annual lightning days in China and the seven geographical regions show a decreasing trend from 1961 to 2016. At the same time, the annual average number of single station lightning days in northwest China and Tibet region shows the characteristics of piecewise variation. The annual average single station lightning days in the whole country, northeast china, north China, eastern Northwest China and southeast China have oscillation periods about 2 to 4 a. There are significant oscillation periods of 2, 4 and 6 a, 3 and 8 a, and 2 to 6 a in the western northwest China, Tibet and southwest China, respectively. The annual single station lightning day mutation occurs in the whole country and seven geographical regions from 1980s to the middle and late 1990s, but none of them passes the test of P<0.05 significant level. On the dimension of space, Chinese annual lightning days show a clear "south high- north low" spatial distribution pattern from 1961 to 2016. The lightning days in the east of the Huhuanyong line are dominated by the positive anomaly from 1961 to 1980, and the range of the positive anomaly decreases successively after 1980. For the trend of spatial distribution, the annual trend of lightning days in China is mainly on the decrease, especially in the coastal areas of south of the Yangtze River. For the spatial distribution of fluctuation characteristics, the Qinghai Tibet Plateau, the North China Plain and the vicinity of both sides of the Yangtze River are the regions whose annual fluctuation of lightning days is large. The annual fluctuations of the coastal areas of south of the Yangtze River and the central and northern parts of Xinjiang are relatively small.