Abstract: In order to underst and precipitation measurement errors clearly, comparative tests about precipitation were carried out in many countries in the 20th century. Because the raingauges to measure precipitation amount are varied in type, dimensions and installation height in different countries, the size of precipitation measurement error is not the same among various countries. To understand precipitation measurement errors in China, 30 standard rainfall stations for precipitation comparative observation were set up all over the country before 1993. The stations are all of reference or principal climatological stations in China. The installation of standard rainfall stations and the collection about comparative data from those stations are introduced. The random error, the wetted error, the evaporation error and the wind-induced error in precipitation measurements are studied. Comparative observations have been conducted between pit gauge, 2 operational gauges for seven years at 30 stations about 29000 events, the sizes of the above these errors are given. The distribution of random errors and systematic errors in precipitation measurements are studied. For the operational gauge whose diameter of receiving orifice is 20 μm and installing height is 70 cm, the wetted error is 0.2 μm and the evaporation error is 0.0 μm for each event, the random error is 0.0 μm for even measurement and the wind-induced averag eerror is 0.19 μm and 0.32 μm respectively for rain and snow measurement. The relative error in rain measurements varies from 4.34% to 15.28%, 6.17% to 39. 99% in snow observations.