Research to address spatio-temporal variability of soil chemical properties was conducted with geostatistical method in low hill region in subtropical China. Soil samples from 0- to 15-cm depth were collected at 105 locat ions on a 100- by 100-m grid within a 1.35 km² field in 1985 and again in 1997. Soil properties varied sharply, with available P showing the highest CV and soil pH the lowest. Geostatistical analysis revealed that all the soil chemical properties and their changes between the two sampling time were spatial-structured. The nugget-to-sill ratio showed a strong spat ial dependence for soil pH, and a moderate one for other properties. The ranges for soil properties sampled in 1985 were roughly equal or larger than the diameter of the hills. Changing the land use patterns decreased the ranges for soil chemical properties. The ranges for soil pH and available K were about the radius of hills. The contour map by kriging showed, to a certain extent, a spatial similarity among the estimated values for soil properties in and between the two sampling time. This showed the kridging can be used to analyze the spatio-temporal variability of soil properties.