We investigated heavy metal contamination in soils and plants at polluted sites in China including some with heavy industries, metal mining, smelting and untreated wastewater irrigation areas. We report our main findings in this paper. The concentrations of heavy metals, including Cd and Zn, in the soils at the investigated sites were above the background levels, and generally exceeded the Government guidelines for metals in soil. The concentrations of metals in plants served to indicate the metal contamination status of the site, and also revealed the abilities of various plant species to take up and accumulate the metals from the soil. Substantial differences in the accumulation of heavy metals were observed among the plant species investigated. Polygonum hydropiper growing on contaminated soils in a sewage pond had accumulated 1061 mg kg(-1) of Zn in its shoots. Rumex acetosa L. growing near a smelter had accumulated more than 900 mg kg(-1) of Zn both in its shoots and roots. Therefore these species have potential for phytoremediation of metal-contaminated sites. Our results indicate the need to elucidate the dynamics of soil metal contamination of plants and the onward movement of metal contaminants into the food chain. Also our results indicate that the consumption of rice grown in paddy soils contaminated with Cd, Cr or Zn may pose a serious risk to human health, because from 24 to 22% of the total metal content in the rice biomass was concentrated in the rice grain. Platanus acerifolia growing on heavily contaminated soil accumulated only very low levels of heavy metals, and this mechanism for excluding metal uptake may have value in crop improvement. Sources of metal entering the environmental matrices studied included untreated wastewater, tailings or slurries and dust depositions from metal ore mining, and sewage sludge. Pb, Zn or Cd concentrations declined with the distance from metal smelter in accordance with a good exponential correlation (R2>0.9), and this shows that metal dust deposition is an important contributor to metal contamination of soils.