The climate change characteristics of decade, annual， seasonal and monthly sunshine durations in Xining city were analyzed based on the observed data of sunshine duration in Xiningcity in recent 50years． The resu1ts indicate that in recent 50 years， the sunshine duration decreased with a tendency of75.1 h per ten years； the interannual variationamplitude is obvious； and the difference of the sunshine duration between 1963 and 2007 reaches up 635.3 h． There is obvious seasonal difference in sunshine duration， the decreasing amplitudes in summer and winter are more obvious than that of spring and autumn． The decreasing tendency is the most significant in January and less in April． The annual sunshine duration in 1983 occurred abrupt change from long to short．Key words: Xining; Sunshine duration; Climate abrupt change
