Abstract: Objective To understand the etiological characteristics of hospitalized children with diarrhea in Urumqi. Methods Stool samples were collected from 379 hospitalized children with diarrhea in Urumqi from January to December 2010 to conduct etiological detection with ELISA, RT-PCR and PCR respectively. Results Among the 229 (60.4%) samples collected, the detection rate was 45.6% for rotavirus, 14.2% for norovirus, 4.2% for astrovirus, 3.2% for adenovirus and 1.1% for sapovirus. Co-infections were detected in 26 cases. The most common type was co-infection of rotavirus and norovirus, accounting for 50.0% (13/26). The incidence peaks of rotavirus infection occurred during January-March and October-December respectively, and the incidence peak of norovirus infection occurred in October. The children with rotavirus infection were younger than those with norovirus infection (P=0.002). All adenovirus and sapovirus infections occurred in children aged2 years. Conclusion Rotavirus was the most prevalent pathogen of childhood viral diarrhea in Urumqi in 2010, followed by norovirus. Co-infection was detected too, to which close attention should be paid in future epidemiological and etiological researches.