The effects of the greenbelt system on soil characteristics are evaluated in peri-urban Karamay.The emphasis in this paper is to measure the soil nutrients and salinity properties between protective greenbelt and desert zone.The results indicate that the soil nutrients at the protective greenbelt are improved noticeably than the one of desert zone,especially nitrogen matter content of the soil.The total salt content significantly increased,reaching 90.8%,compared with the greenbelt and the desert zone.The soil pH decreased by 0.98,from the strong alkaline soil into alkaline soil.There are slight changes in the main ion composition which from 4 of the desert zone to 2 of the greenbelt,and soluble salt mainly concentrated in the 40-60 cm.In the vertical direction,organic matter and available soil nutrients are mainly at the surface of the soil,and the soil nutrients reduced along with the increasing of soil depth,regardless of the greenbelt or the desert zone.