Abstract: To explore the variation characteristics of sunshine hours in south Xinjiang and the impact factors, the author used simple linear fitting, 5 years moving average method, the cumulative departure method, Mann- Kendall mutation test and inverse distance weighted interpolation method to analyze the temporal and spatial variation characteristics of sunshine hours of the year, season and month from 1961-2013 in 25 state weather stations. Meanwhile, the authors also analyzed the climate factors that affected the sunshine hours. The result showed that: the annual sunshine hours in south Xinjiang obviously declined at a rate of 25.7 h/10 a. Except spring, the other seasons all showed the declining trend, autumn and winter made great contribution to the change of annual sunshine hours, and summer’s contribution was the lowest. Annual sunshine hours of high value areas were located in the east of Hami and Turpan, the low-value areas were located in the north of Barron and Bayanbulak as well as the southwest of Khotan Region. The annual sunshine hours mutated in 1982, slightly lagged behind the whole country and the northwest region. The variation of sunshine hours in south Xinjiang was the result of co-action of temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, wind speed and vapor pressure.