In order to make the soil and water conservation experiments based on artificial rainfall simulation system more reliable,we studied the characteristics of artificial rainfall produced by the QYJY-503C simulation system and examined the possibility of application of the device in practical experiments of soil and water conservation. The results showed that: 1)the relationship between raindrop and stain diameters followed the function d = 0.383 9D0.709 when the raindrops were at their terminal velocity. 2) The effective rainfall uniformity of the QYJY -503C artificial rainfall simulation system was over 80%. 3) The raindrop diameter increased with the increasing rainfall intensity following a power function of d50 =0.559 5I0.280 5; at the same rainfall intensity, the diameter of raindrops generated by the device was 20% - 70% smaller than that of natural raindrops. 4) The kinetic energy and rainfall intensity had a good linear relationship: E = 0.004 2I – 0.021, suggesting that it is feasible to achieve the kinetic energy of natural rainfall through controlling the simulated rainfall intensity. 5) The performance of QYJY -503C artificial rainfall simulation system was stable and reliable, so it can be used to study soil erosion indoor.