Abstract: In the past two decades, numerous attempts(afforestation, natural regeneration, etc.)have been made to promote recovery of the degraded soil such as reconverting farmlands to forestlands in Guizhou Karst region, southwest of China. For better understanding of effects of different vegetation types on the chemical and microbial biomass properties of the soil, five vegetation types, namely natural forest(control), natural regeneration, bamboo plantation, pine plantation and grassland(control), were investigated in this region. The results indicated: a range of soil pH from near neutral was observed, as a result of weathering and eluviation in the Karst area. Soil organic carbon, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium varied from 23.4-142, 1.5-13.5, 0.1-0.9, 2.7-16.4, 1.7-5.9, 2.0-7.1, and 0.13-0.48 g/kg, respectively. Soil ammonium-N and nitrate-N varied from 0.43-8.83, and 0.01-9.71 mg/kg, respectively. Exchangeable calcium ion, magnesium ion, potassium ion, sodium ion varied from 10.32-33.41, 0.57-5.58, 0.05-0.34, 0.02-0.03 cmol/kg, respectively. Soil microbial biomass carbon, soil microbial biomass nitrogen, and soil microbial biomass phosphorus varied from 388.3-3 191.8, 65.4-624.8, and 3.9-67.5 mg/kg, respectively. The chemical and microbial biomass properties of the soil differed significantly under different vegetation types. Soil chemical properties under natural regeneration with a higher organic matter content showed significantly higher values than those under other vegetation types. Higher microbial biomass carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus values were also observed in natural forest and natural regeneration. Results from this study suggested single-species plantations, especially that the pure plantation of Pinus massoniana had a negative impact on soil chemical and microbial biomass properties, while the natural regeneration might be a more effective way for improving soil quality in the degraded Karst region.