Based on the glacier inventories and meteorological data, spatial-temporal variations of glaciers in Chinese Tianshan Mountains were analyzed systematically. The results show that: (1) 7934 glaciers with an area of 7179.77 km~2 and volume of 756.48 km~3 were identified in the study area. The number of glaciers below 1 km~2 accounts for the majority part of glaciers in the Chinese Tianshan Mountains. In contrast, glaciers between 1 to 10 km~2 and larger than 20 km~2 have the largest proportions of the total glacier surface area. The glaciers in the study area are mainly distributed at elevations of 3800-4800 m. (2) In 10 watersheds, the Akesu River Basin contains the most of the glaciers with a surface area of 1721.75 km~2, but the Yiwu River Basin has the least glaciers whose surface area is 56.03 km~2. There is an obvious difference of glaciers in different regions. In the Akesu region, glacier resource is the most abundant, which accounts for 43.28% and 68.85% in total surface area and volume. In the Turpan region, glacier resource is the least, which accounts for only 0.23% and 0.07% of the total surface area and volume in this region. (3) In the past half century, the loss in glacier area and ice volume were 1619.85 km~2 (-18.64%) and 104 km~3 (21.63%), respectively. Glaciers smaller than 1.0 km~2 constituted the main body of the decreased glacier number. Glaciers below 5 km~2 experienced a significant recession. (4) The relative rates of area change for these glaciers were different for different drainage basins. The fastest change of glacier area occurred on the northern slope of the Bogda Basin and the lowest appeared in the Weigan River Basin. The main reason for glacier retreat in this region was that glacier melting caused by rising summer temperatures is greater than glacier mass supply by increased precipitation during the study period.