Abstract: In order to investigate the mechanism of cold resistance， six varieties with three levels of cold resistance were selected as the experimental materials. The activities of four enzymes， CAT， POD， SOD and PPO， as well as the contents of soluble protein， soluble sugar and MDA were determined in new shoot of the different cold resistant tea varieties in autumn. The results showed that the activities of POD and the content of soluble sugar were much higher in the varieties with high resistance; the content of soluble protein was associated with the cold resistance， while the cold resistance was not related with the activities of the CAT， SOD and PPO， and the content of MDA. Taken together， the activities of POD， and contents of soluble sugar could be used as indices to detect the cold resistance of tea varieties．

Key words: tea varieties, cold resistance, physiological characters