Based on questionnaire survey conducted at irrigation and dry farming areas in Huining County of Gansu Province,and rural areas in Shanxian of southwestern Shandong Province,this paper dealt with understanding of global climate change of rural residents and their willingness to pay to mitigate climate change.It is found that although respondents showed great concern on global climate change,their understanding of what is global climate change and why it occurred was very limited.To some degree,the local residents considered global climate change as local climate change.The central government and international organizations were regarded to be responsible for global climate change,while perceived ability of individuals and families for mitigating climate change was low and the respondents showed low willingness to pay regardless of their self-claimed obligation to deal with climate change.Education and occupation differences in willingness to pay were significant.It is argued how the respondents understand occurrence of climate change affects their opinion on who are responsible for climate change,their perceived ability for mitigating climate change,and further willingness to pay.Finally,policy implications of this study were discussed.