Based on the data obtained through manual observation and automatic observation during the period when all the basic meteorological stations in China monitored soil temperature using the two observation methods simultaneously, analyses were made of differences between soil temperatures obtained through different observation methods in various soil layers. Results show that the difference between manual observation and automatic observation in daily mean soil temperature was no more than 0.11℃ and decreased with increasing soil depth. In the soil layer of 5 cm ~ 320 cm, whether in winter or in summer, the mean difference was ±0.2℃ in most parts of China. Standard deviation of the daily mean difference in soil temperature between the two methods declined from 0.78℃ in the shallow soil layers to 0.47℃ in the deep soil layers, with uncertainty exceeding 1℃ in soil layers (5 cm ~ 20 cm), but lingering below 1℃ in soil layers (40 cm ~ 320 cm). As a matter of fact, no significant difference in daily mean of soil temperatures was found between automatic observation and manual observation in all the observation stations, except a few. The differences observed were attributed to inhomogenous distribution of the horizontal temperature field and sharp vertical temperature gradient in the soil and asynchronous operation of the two methods.