Abstract: Arid and semi-arid area covered a vast and continuous region and plays an important role in terrestrial ecosystems, thus research in carbon cycle of arid and semi-arid areas ecosystem was contributive to estimating terrestrial ecosystems carbon storage and understanding the process of carbon cycle. The basic concepts of carbon cycle were outlined, different environment factors (such as solar radiation, temperature, water conditions and so on) of carbon cycle and present carbon flux researches in arid and semi-arid areas were summarized. There were still some weaknesses of the carbon cycle research in arid and semi-arid areas ecosystem of China. At last, the future research trends in carbon cycle research in China arid and semi-arid areas ecosystem were put forward: (1) carbon cycle research in different time and space scale ;(2) physical, chemistry and biological process research of carbon source and carbon sink; (3) studies from the system and the whole angle; (4) draw up a unified method of field monitoring and test.