Studying the characteristics of freezing weather in China ultimately helps people to understand freezing weather more comprehensively. It also contributes to warning and forecasting capabilities for freezing weather, and thus disaster reduction. Using data from hourly or half hourly routine and special observations from civil aviation airports in China for the period 2011-2013, the characteristics of temporal and spatial distribution, duration and weather conditions of freezing weather events were analyzed. It was found that the freezing weather events during the study period occurred in most regions of China. The high-frequency region for freezing rain or freezing drizzle events corresponded well to that of high intensity. In the low-frequency region for freezing fog, events tended to last longer. Freezing weather usually occurred in the winter season (December to February), and mostly in January. Events occurred frequently in the early morning [from 0000 to 0700 local time (LT)] and infrequently in the afternoon (from 1300 to 1400 LST). The duration of each freezing precipitation event was usually less than 2 h. Most freezing weather events occurred when temperatures were -3℃ to -1℃ and dew point was -4℃ to -1℃. The highest frequency of freezing weather events occurred when the dew point drop was 0℃ to 1℃. The dominant winds were northeasterly or northerly when freezing precipitation occurred, and the wind speed was usually 2-3.9 m s^-1. Most freezing rain and freezing drizzle was mixed with fog, whereas freezing fog was not mixed with other precipitation.