Abstract: The pollution status of soil heavy metal in 12 vegetable bases of Yiwu city， Zhejiang， China was evaluated by using single pollution index and comprehensive pollution index methods. The results showed that average contents of soil heavy metal in 12 vegetable bases were as follows: Cd: 036 mg·kg-1， Zn 279.02 mg·kg-1， C r 62.93 mg·kg-1， Cu 5.16 mg·kg-1， Hg 0.28 mg·kg-1， and As 2.14 mg·kg-1. Among the 7 heavy metal studied，the variation coefficients of As and Hg were the greatest （110%）， followed by Cd， Zn， Cr， and Cu （60%-94%）， and the lowest was Pb （28%）. The average single pollution index of soil heavy metal of the soils in 12 vegetable bases followed the order: Cd （1.01） > Hg （0.81） ≈ Zn （0.80） > Cu （0.33） > Cr （0.29）> Pb ≈ As （0.10）. Soil samples at the soil heavy metal levels of safe， warning， and slight pollution accounted for 33.3%， 25.0% and 41.7% of total soil samples， respectively. Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that parts of the soils in the vegetable bases of Yiwu city have been slightly polluted by heavy metals.

Key words: vegetable soil, heavy metal, pollution, single element pollution index, comprehensive pollution index