Soil moisture distributions in selected transects in the Daqinggou Nature Reserve, the southeastern margin of Horqin sand in Inner Mongolia ,China were measured with the Time Domain Reflectometry (TDR) technique. Data were analyzed by the Kriging interpolation method in the SURFER software. We found that the summer months had the highest variation, followed by the fall and spring months. There were no significant differences in soil moisture content among soil layers. The coefficient of variation (CV) of average monthly soil moisture (May, July, September) were the highest among slope aspects, followed by vegetation types and slope positions. Broadleaf forests had the highest average monthly soil moisture content followed by bosquet, Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica, Savanna, and shrub. Average monthly soil moisture changed significantly in different vegetation communities with the broadleaf forests being on top of the list. The average soil moisture for the entire soil profile varied significantly among vegetation types over time. The ranking from high to low was: broadleaf forests > bosquet > Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica plantation >shrub> Savanna. Soil moisture content in the east and west facing slope was higher than that in the south and north facing slopes. Average soil moisture content of all layers changed little with slope directions in the same month. In east and west facing slopes, soil moisture in different months changed significantly with July being the highest. Overall east facing slopes had the highest changes, followed by west, south, and north facing slopes. The variations of average monthly soil moisture were significant among three slope positions for all layers, except for that of 31-45 cm depth. Soil moisture of the foothill was much higher than other slope positions. In the middle slope, the average monthly soil moisture in different layers varied significantly. The average soil moisture for the entire soil profile changed greatly among slope positions over time. We found a strong vertical vegetation gradient, including hygrocolous-mesophilic-xerophytic. Based on our study, the lowest soil moisture thresholds for local vegetation restoration is proposed, soil moisture content of the 0-30 cm in depth is 9.1%-11.5%、 8.1%-9.0%、60%-8.0%,while that of 31-60 cm in depth is 11.1%-13%、 8.5%-11%、6.0%-8.4%, respectively for woodland, shrub, semishrub.