As the biggest river in Sanming,the Shaxi River is one of the main three upstream flows of Minjiang River,which is the biggest river in Fujian Province.The water quality of Shaxi River presents worsening tendency due to the drain of wastewater and the exploitation of step-hydropower stations.The surficial sediments were important for absorptive behavior and accumulation of heavy metals in aquatic environment.The distribution characters of heavy metals in urban reach river water and surficial sediments of Shaxi River were researched.The results indicated that the concentration and fraction of heavy metals were significantly correlative to the drain of some iron and steel factory around the Shaxi River,which varied obviously with the downstream distance increasing to the drain.The heavy metals in river water and surficial sediments included Zn,Pb,Cu and Cr.The microwave digestion result showed that the heavy metal concentration of river water was in order of Zn>Cu>Pb>Cr,and order of Zn>Pb>Cu>Cr in river sedements.The results of sequential extraction procedure showed that heavy metal zinc in the surficial sediment was mainly associated with residual and acid soluble fractions,Pb mainly in reducible and residual fractions,Cu mainly in reducible and oxidizable fractions and Cr was mainly in residual fraction.The study will help to pollution control and management in Shaxi and River.