Abstract: In virtue of Mann-Kendall rank statistics and the moving-t test, the trends and the abrupt variations of visibility were analyzed using data of manual air horizontal visibility at five surface meteorological stations from 1980to 2011. All these stations are located in the urban area of Beijing City named Haidian, Chaoyang, Beijing Observatory, Shijingshan, and Fengtai station. The annual mean values of visibility showed decreasing trends at the stations of Haidian and Shijingshan, while rising trends were observed at the stations of Chaoyang, Beijing Observatory and Fengtai. The maximum and the minimum trends of the annual mean visibility were 2.50km/10a at Chaoyang station and 1.11km/10a at Fengtai station, respectively. A slight increasing trend of the annual mean visibility (0.47km/10a) was detected in the average urban area of Beijing City. The mean visibility value of the whole urban area was 18.5km from 2007to 2011. The analysis results of the abrupt variations showed that the annual mean visibility at observed site appeared abrupt changes with different abrupt types except for at the Chaoyang station. The annual mean visibility showed no significant abrupt changes in the average urban area of Beijing.