The traditional chemical methods, though still commonly used at present, for monitoring heavy metal pollution of soils are both time- and fund-consuming, while magnetic method is simple and inexpensive, and can be used to detect heavy metal pollution of soils nondestructively, with a soil-magnetic-susceptibility based soil heavy metal pollution grading system available. For use of that technology, a total of 99 topsoil (0～15 cm) samples were collected with the grid method in Kaifeng City (China) for analysis of Cr, Cu, Ni and Zn with atomic absorption spectrometry (F-AAS), Cd and Pb with inductively coupled plasma/mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), As with atomic fluorescence spectrophotometer (AFS), and χLF and χHF (low and high frequency magnetic susceptibility) with a MS2 magnetic susceptibility meter made by Bartington Ltd., Britain. The ordinary Kriging interpolation method was used to work out spatial distribution of soil magnetic susceptibility（χLF）in the city. Soil heavy metals pollution was assessed by pollution load index (PLI). Based on analysis of relationship between PLI and χLF, a soil heavy metal pollution grading system was established. Results show that the concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in the topsoil of Kaifeng are 6.31, 1.05, 53.11, 36.40, 23.87, 36.71 and 164.03 mg kg ^-1, respectively, and in line with their contamination factor values (CF), the heavy metals follow an order of Cd (10.48) ＞ Zn (2.28) ＞ Pb (1.68) ＞ Cu (1.51) ＞ Ni (0.81) ＞ Cr (0.80) ＞ As (0.65). The average PLI of the 7 heavy metals in the samples is 2.53, indicating that as a whole, the soil is moderately polluted with heavy metals, of which cadmium is the major pollutant. Soil χLF in Kaifeng varies in the range from 39.97×10^-8m³ kg^-1to 1123×10^-8m³ kg^-1with an average of 125.7×10^-8, while χFD does in the range from 0.61% to 5.94% with an average of 2.82%. The spatial distribution of soil χLF in Kaifeng City has three major characteristics, i.e. 1) Soil χLF displays a declining gradient from southeast to northwest; 2), A fairly large tract of the northern part of the old city district (within the ancient city walls); and 3) A few fairly high peaks of soil χLF appear alongside the Longhai Railway and are mainly distributed in the vicinity of the railway station and the east and west freight stations. Moreover, the contents of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in the soils and PLI are significantly and positively correlated with soil χLF, and the heavy metals display an order of Zn > Cu > Cd > Pb > As > Cr > Ni in terms of degree of the correlation, but contents of the heavy metals are negatively or poorly related with χFD, suggesting that the pollutants in the soils of Kaifeng City are closely related to all sorts of human activities. Dust from industrial production processes, exhaust from running vehicles, abrasion of aged pavement and stacks of solid waste, all are sources of large volumes of magnetic particular pollutants, which ultimately settle down into the soil with atmospheric precipitation or surface runoff, thus not only causing rise of heavy metals contents in the soil, but also enhancing magnetism of the soil. A significant positive relationship (R² = 0.814, p＜0.01) is observed between PLI and χLF, which suggests that soil χLF can be used to grade or evaluation soil heavy metal pollution in the city, and a regression equation, PLI = 0.011χLF + 0.320 (r = 0.663), is developed between the two parameters. When soil χLF is ≤62×10^-8m³ kg^-1, it means that the soil is not polluted; when soil χLF is 62×10^-8＜χLF≤153×10^-8m³ kg^-1, it means the soil is slightly polluted; and when soil χLF is 153×10^-8＜χLF≤244×10^-8m³ kg^-1, it means the soil is moderately polluted; and when soil χLF is＞244×10^-8m³ kg^-1, it means the soil is highly polluted. It should be noted that the grading is tentative and further studies should be done on its universality.