Abstract: Located in the center of Eurasian continents, Xinjiang's climate belongs to continental climate. Its precipitation has obvious regional features and differs from the monsoon region. This paper systematically reviewed and summarized the achievement of studies on precipitation in Xinjiang in the recent 40 years. Special attention is paid to the standard of precipitation, climate characteristics, weather circulation background, the mechanism of water vapor transport, precipitation system structure as well as numerical simulation in Xinjiang. On the base of induction and summary, several directions for the study of precipitation in Xinjiang are raised, including structure of water vapor source, mechanism of water vapor transport, structure of mesoscale system and the role of topography in dynamic process.