Ion-absorbed-type of rare earth deposits that are located in Ganzhou have been mined on a large scale since the 1970s because of their wide distribution, high reserves, and easy extraction. The deposits are extracted locally by heap leaching and processed through centralized production. Heap leaching has higher extraction efficiency than traditional methods, but it can strip the vegetation at the mine and alter severely the ecological balance. Additionally, the residue of ammonium sulfate has an impact on the soil and water components of the rare earth tailings after exploitation. Therefore, ecological restoration of rare earth tailings has become an indispensable task.Microorganisms are important component of the soil ecosystem; they promote stability of contaminated soil ecosystems by adjusting the function of the soil. Nutrients and microbes in an ecosystem have enormous potential in environmental repair. However, questions such as how soil microbial community responds during the process of vegetation restoration or how to develop a mutually beneficial relationship within the plant-microbe-soil composite ecological restoration system during restoration of rare earth tailings do not yet have clear answers.This article studied how the plant-microbe-soil composite ecological restoration system improved soil quality in An Yuan rare earth tailing and analyzed the change of the bacterial community structure after vegetation restoration. Finally, it discussed how bacteria improved soil quality during the restoration of vegetation on rare earth tailings.In this study, Ganzhou-AnYuan rare earth tailings area and vegetation areas undergoing different levels of restoration were selected as research study sites. We investigated the quality of soil in the original tailing area and in six vegetation restoration areas and used denatured gradient gel electrophoresis technology and canonical correspondence analysis to illustrate the characteristics of soil microbial community structure. Finally, we discussed how soil microbial community responded to the vegetation restoration.Original soil quality of rare earth mines was severely damaged by exploitation. Original rare earth tailings had poor soil moisture content, organic matter content, high nitrogen ion content, and low microbial community diversity and evenness. Soil quality in areas undergoing different levels of vegetation restoration were significantly improved compared to the quality of tailings soil without vegetation restoration, the soil moisture content and organic matter content increased 2-3 times after vegetation restoration. Bacterial community structure analysis showed that after vegetation restoration soil bacterial community structure changed significantly; the relatedness degree of bacterial community was only 0.21 between the original rare earth tailings soil and the vegetation restoration soil, bacterial diversity, evenness, and abundance were significantly improved compared to the original tailing soils. Among the different vegetation restoration schemes, the vegetation restoration schemes with the highest improvement in soil quality utilized Pinus elliottii and Lindera. These two schemes not only improved the soil moisture content and organic matter content, they also improved significantly bacterial community in the soil. Canonical correspondence analysis showed that bacterial community structure in the soil of the original rare earth tailings was significantly affected by soil pH, and once the vegetation was restored, the main environmental factors were replaced by soil moisture content, organic matter, organic carbon, and total phosphorus content. This study further reveals that microbes play an important role in the process of vegetation restoration and the study provides a rich theoretical basis for ecological restoration of rare earth tailings.