Soils are fundamental to preservation and sustainability of life-support system on Earth. Soils develop as the most dynamic and complex interface linking atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere and biosphere. Soils harbor enormous diversities of microbial communities as the primary driving forces for global exchanges of matter and energy on our planet. Despite of its profound importance, the invisible soil microbes have for long been underappreciated. In the early 2000s, there has been growing awareness that soil microbiology has attracted huge interest from nonsoil scientists due to the introduction of threedomain phylogeny. It is also known as tree of life theory which is widely recognized as the most accurate reflection of the relatedness of all organisms and provides us with a tool to classify and elucidate the largely untapped resource of soil microbial communities. In January 2005, the Department of Earth Sciences of National Natural Science Foundation of China organized a workshop of ‘Soil Biology and Soil Processes’ with focused discussion on soil microbiology research frontiers. The workshop outlined research priorities, crossdisciplinary research opportunities, technological needs and potential breakthroughs within soil microbiology. This workshop has witnessed the rapid advances of soil microbiology in soil nutrient transformation, global environmental changes and environmental remediation over the last decade in China. This article will give a brief review on soil microbial researches in the past decade in China, present the status quo of funding system and highlight the challenge and opportunities for future soil microbiology in China.