Hydrological cycle is one of the most active and important part in the interaction among ocean, land and atmosphere which is significantly affected by climate change. This paper evaluates the changes of water cycle elements such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, surface runoff and water vapor in China and ten river basins since 1979. From 1961 to 2018, the surface air temperature showed a significant upward trend in China, and the atmospheric water vapor and water vapor budget showed a significant increase trend. While in Ten basins, the atmospheric water vapor showing a significant downward trend in the Huaihe Basin, a significant upward trend in the Yellow River Basin and the Northwest River Basins, and other basins show no obvious changes. Except for the Songhua River Basin and the Southwest River Basin, the water vapor budget showed an upward trend in the rest of the basins. Except for the Northwest River Basin, which the precipitation increased significant, the changes of precipitation in other basins were not significant. Actual evapotranspiration increased slightly, mainly in the western and northeast basins of China. In addition to the Yellow River Basin and the Northwest River Basin, the surface runoff of most basins in northern China shows a decreasing trend, while that in the southern basins is complex. Compared with 1979-2000, the temperature in China increased by about 0.63 ℃ from 2000 to 2018, while the atmospheric water vapor increased about 1.2%, the precipitation increased about 0.5%, the inflow and outflow water vapor decreased, the actual evapotranspiration decreased slightly, the precipitation recycling ratio increased by 10.9%. The internal hydrological circulation of the ten basins is more active than that before 21th, the precipitation recycling ratio increased except Songhua and Liaohe River basin. The precipitation of Haihe, Yellow, Huaihe and Northwest River Basin has increased due to the external and internal hydrological circulation of the basin were more active. Although the precipitation formed by evapotranspiration of Songhua, Laio, Yangtze, Pearl and Yangtze and Southwest River basins has increased, the precipitation in the basins has decreased due to the decrease of inflow water vapor. The precipitation formed by evapotranspiration of Southeast River Basin has slightly increased, but the overall change of precipitation was not significant.