Abstract: Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of hand foot and month disease (HFMD) in China in 2008 and provide evidence for the development of effective prevention and control measures. Methods The descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the data of the epidemic obtained from national disease reporting information system. Results A total of 488 955 HFMD cases were reported in mainland of China in 2008, including 1165 severe cases and 126 deaths. The reported morbidity was 37.01/lakh and the case fatality was 0.03%. There were 345 159 cases reported during May to July, accounted for 70.59% of the total. The children under 5 years old accounted for 91.27% of the total reported cases, of which the children aged 3 years accounted for 71.78%. Of the severe and the death cases, the children aged 3 years accounted for 89.53% and 97.62% respectively, the median ages were 2.09 and 1.49 years old respectively. A total of 8639 laboratory confirmed cases were reported, of which the cases caused by enterovirus 71 (EV71) accounted for 54.01%, by Coxsackie virus A 16 (CVA16) accounted for 14.77% and by other enteric viruses accounted for 31.22%. Among the severe and the death cases, the positive rates of EV71 were 81.59% and 91.29% respectively. Conclusion HFMD occurred widely with local outbreaks or epidemics in China in 2008. The incidence peak was observed during May-July. Most reported cases were the children less than 5 years old and most severe and death cases were the children less than 3 years old. The majority of reported cases were caused by EV71, and most severe and death cases were caused by EV71 too.