According to the national standard (2006) on tropical cyclone (TC) intensity,TCs are categorized into six intensity types,namely,tropical depression (TD),tropical storm (TS),severe tropical storm (STS),typhoon (TY),severe typhoon (STY),and super severe typhoon (SSTY).Fifty-eight years (1949-2006) of the datasets from the Yearbook of Typhoons and Yearbook of Tropical Cyclones were used to study the variation characteristics of TCs making landfalls in mainland China,Hainan and Taiwan islands.The main results are as follows.First,interannual or interdecadal variations in the number of landfalling TCs at different intensities exist.As far as long-term trends are concerned,the TD and TS frequencies show a significant linearly decreasing trend while those of STY show a significant linearly increasing trend.Second,a significant period of 6-8 years exist in the variations of annual landfalling TD,TS,and STS frequencies while quasi-16-year periods are found in the annual TY frequency.Third,TD and TS are generated mostly over the South China Sea,while TY,STY,and SSTY mostly over the waters southeast of the Bashi Channel and the ocean to the east of the Philippines.Fourth,as far as interdecadal trends are concerned,the frequencies of landfalling TD and TS generated over the South China Sea show significant linearly decreasing trends.However,TY and STY show significant linearly increasing trends.