【Objective】 Change in land-use is a crucial aspect of anthropogenic disturbance of terrestrial ecosystems. To assess its impacts on the ecosystems is of vital significance to maintenance of ecosystem functions and promotion of soil sustainability. Soil microbial properties, deemed as important bio-indicators of soil health and quality, can be influenced by changes in land-use. Reclamation of paddy into orchard was very common in South China during the last two decades. 【Method】 In order to further the knowledge about the effects on soil microbial properties, a total of soil samples were collected from surface soil layers of paddy fields and orchards along a chronosequence of cultivation in Shaoxing City, Zhejiang Province, for analysis of soil physicochemical and microbial properties, using the denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) method, the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) method analyses and some others. The DGGE gel was scanned, for analysis of fingerprints of soil microbes with the aid of the software of QUANTITY ONE 4.6.2, and relationships of soil microbial community with soil physicochemical properties were analyzed using the redundancy analysis (RDA) method. 【Result】 Results show that the soils under the two types of land use differed significantly in soil physicochemical and microbial properties. The orchard soils were significantly higher in total phosphorus (TP), available phosphorus (AP), total potassium (TK) and available potassium (AK), but relatively lower in water-stable aggregate (>0.25 mm), organic matter (OM), total nitrogen (TN) and alkali-hydrolysable nitrogen (AN). Besides, the orchards soils were 44.1%, 59.9% and 34.0% lower, respectively, in soil microbial biomass carbon (MBC), microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN) and microbial biomass carbon (MBC)/total organic carbon (TOC), showing a significant and negative relationship with age of the orchards (p < 0.01). Moreover, the orchards soils were 58.1% lower in soil total microbial phospholipid fatty acids, and significantly (p < 0.01) lower in ratio of Gram negative bacteria (Gm^-) to Gram positive bacteria (Gm⁺), and in contrast, much higher in ratio of aerobic bacteria to anaerobic bacteria (p < 0.01), and in ratio of Iso/Anteiso and ratio of Cy/Pre fatty acids (p < 0.01), which indicate that nutrient stress in the orchards aggravates with the cultivation going on after the reclamation (p < 0.01). Cluster analysis of the DGGE banding patterns of the eighteen soil samples showed a clear separation between paddy and orchard soil samples, and a noticeable separation between orchard soils under short and long orchard cultivation, which indicated that both the change in land-use and cultivation history have important effects on soil microbial community. Moreover, Shannon-Wiener indexes of soil total bacteria declined in the orchard soils. Redundancy analysis of PLFA in the soils and environmental factors demonstrates that soil moisture, organic matter, total nitrogen, alkali-hydrolysable nitrogen and available phosphorus are the most important environmental factors affecting soil microbial community compositions in the paddy and orchard ecosystems (p < 0.01). In general, soil aeration and staple nutrients are the most important factors affecting soil bacterial diversity. DGGE and PLFA analyses both demonstrate that change in land-use has a greater impact on soil microbial diversity than the history of cultivation does. 【Conclusion】 This study concludes that both change in land use and history of cultivation have some important effects on soil physicochemical properties, while soil microbial community diversity can also affect soil physicochemical properties and vise versa. Being a vital carbon sink in the earth ecosystem, paddy is rich in soil microbial community diversity and hence a land use pattern, capable of promoting sustainable development of the soil resources. Furthermore, long-term cultivation of orchards is apt to cause a series of problems, such as imbalance of soil nutrients and micro-flora, which eventually negatively affects soil sustainability.