Abstract: To investigate the heat transfer characteristics of north earthen wall of Chinese solar greenhouses，a study was conducted in a Chinese solar greenhouse which was located in Shouguang city，Shangdong province The temperatures of different layers in the north wall，solar irradiance on the surface of north wall，indoor and outdoor air temperatures were continuously monitored The results showed that the temperatures of different layers of north wall presented certain daily variation The heat fluxes of the north wall followed the same patterns was the wall temperatures Heat conduction occurred mainly at the surface layer due to its obvious heat storage and release during the day and night，respectively. On a sunny day，the total heat stored by the wall during the daytime and released to the greenhouse during night were 2657 and 1865kJm-2，respectively On a snowy day，the total heat stored and released were 18 and 859kJm-2，respectively. Experimental results also showed that there were heat storage and insulation layers in the north wall of Chinese solar greenhouses and the functions of two layers were different It is suggested that using different materials for the heat storage and insulation layers of north wall could achieve better performance than homogeneous walls

Key words: Chinese solar greenhouse, North earthen wall, Heat transfer, Effective heat storage layer