Abstract: Lamb-Jenkinson classification scheme is applied to obtain circulation types from the mean sea-level pressure on a daily basis. The relationship between the atmospheric circulation and the precipitation in Northeast China is explored. Eight major types (N, NW, NE, A, C, S, SW and W) which occur most frequently are analyzed to reveal their characteristics and their relationship to atmospheric circulation. Furthermore, the anomaly precipitation distributions under eight circulation types are discussed. The contributions of each major circulation type to total precipitation in Northeast China are investigated as well. The statistics relationship between the nine representative stations with a long record of precipitation and the frequencies of the circulation types are established successfully. The relationship is used to reconstruct the 54-year precipitation sequence at these nine stations.The results show that Lamb-Jenkinson classification scheme can be well applied in Northeast China. The classified types are reasonable. The precipitation distributions of eight major types match reasonably well with large-scale atmospheric patterns. Positive pressure anomaly corresponds to less rainfall, while negative pressure anomaly usually corresponds to more rainfall. The C type makes the greatest contribution to the total rainfall. On the contrary, N, NE, NW, A and W types have little contribution to the total rainfall. Reconstructed precipitation series in nine representative stations can explain the majority of precipitation change in recent years from 1951 to 2004, which further reveals the close relationship between the precipitation in Northeast China and the atmospheric circulation.