Abstract: species of mosses collected at 4 sampling sites from far suburbs of Beijing and Xitianmu Natural Protection Zone,Zhejiang Province are used as biomonitors to evaluate the atmospheric heavy metal deposition level in the areas.A total of 19 elemental concentrations are determined by epithermal neutron activation alalysis(ENAA),atomic absorption spectrometry(ASS) and atomic fluorescence spectrometry(AFS).The comparision of the results shows that the atmospheric heavy metal deposition level in Xitianmu is lower than that in the Beijing region.Compared to European mosses,the 12 Chinese mosses are relatively higher in elemental concentrations.After the interspecies correlation based upon the elements in mosses from the sites,they could be used as the alternative biomonitors.