Using the daily meteorological drought indicator (DI) constructed by standardized antecedent precipitation index (SAPI) and year round average relative moisture index (M),based on meteorological data of 174 stations of South China (includes Guangdong and Guangxi Province), temporal and spatial characteristics and its variation trend of meteorological drought in recent 50 years in South China was analyzed in the paper. Main results are: (1) Recent 30 years (1981-2010) average drought days frequency of all levels in South China is 26.0%, where light, middle, severe and extreme drought days accounts for 12.3%, 8.1%, 4.2% and 1.4% respectively. (2) Drought days of each level in non-flood season (October to March) are more than flood season (April to September), and Guangxi is more than Guangdong. (3) The most dry 5 years in recent 50 years in South China are 1963, 1991, 2004, 2009 and 1977. (4)According to linear trends analysis, rainfall and monthly drought index (MI) from January to September mainly show increasing trend, and drought days of each level mainly show decreasing trend, where increasing trend of MI and decreasing trend of drought days of each level in July are statistically significant (α=0.1); while rainfall and MI from October to December mainly show decreasing trend, and drought days of each level mainly show increasing trends, where decreasing trend of MI and increasing trends of middle and severe drought days of November are statistically significant (α=0.05). (5)Stations of increasing and decreasing trends of annual drought days account for 60% and 40% respectively, where 11% stations are statistically significant over 0.1 level. Stations with statistically significant increasing trend of drought days of each levels are mostly in Guangxi Province, while stations with statistically significant decreasing trend of drought days are in Guangdong Province,indicating that the overall pattern that drought in Guangxi is more severe than in Guangdong may further aggravate in the future. The study can provide a base for further study on climate change evaluation, water resources utility and coping strategies of climate change as well.