Continuous and prolonged human disturbances have caused severe degradation of a large portion of lowland in South China, and how to restore such degraded ecosystems becomes an increasing concern. The process and mechanisms of spontaneous succession, which plays an important role in vegetation restoration, have not been adequately examined. To identify the pathways of early spontaneous vegetation succession, 41 plots representing plant communities abandoned over different times were established and Investigated. The communities and indicator species of the vegetation were classified by analyzing the important values of plant species using multivariate analyses. The reaults indicated that the plant species could be classified into nine plant communities repreaenting six succession staages. The pathway and species composition alao changed in the process of succession. We also meaeurad 13 environmental variables of microtopography, soil structure and soil nutrition in each plot to examine the driving forces of auccession and the vegetation-environment relationships. Our resulta ahowed that the environmental variables changed in diverse directions, and that aoil bulk density, soil water capacity and soU acidity were the most important factors.