The daily maximum temperature from 1951 to 2005 for the main capital cities of China is used to analyze the characteristics of temporal and spatial distribution of the number of hot days and heat waves. The results show that the Yangtze River basin is the area attacked by heat waves frequently with long duration (more than 5 days); the temperature increase in main capital cites in China exhibited a “increase-decrease-increase” pattern from southeast to northwest, but most cities experienced increasing temperature in the recent years; the appearance dates and density of high temperature weather are different in different regions.