Book excerpt: The book describes each amphibian with its alternate name, its main characteristics, biological data, population status, and geographic distribution. Each entry is accompanied by plenty of figures and colored pictures of the amphibian and its geographic distribution map. These illustrate China's amphibian species diversity and the latest research findings. It is the most comprehensive summary of China's amphibians. The text and picture combination aids species identification and comparison, and is valuable for the in-depth study of their phylogeny. Its detailed, comprehensive and illustrative descriptions help to identify amphibian species, and have important academic significance for further surveys and research on amphibian numbers, animal protection and the development of protective measures as well as quarantine in customs. It provides important information for research units concerned with amphibians both in China, and the rest of the world, and also for animal protection and law enforcement agencies. Professor Liang Fei, was formerly the director of the department of the herpetological research at Chengdu Institute of Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China; Professor Changyuan Ye works at Chengdu Institute of Biology, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, China;