Abstract: The authors compared the simulations of seasonal evolution of rainfall over eastern China and the associated large-scale circulation during summer by a coupled general circulation model (CGCM, MIROC3.2_hires) and the nested regional climate model (RegCM3). Results show that both the MIROC3.2_hires and RegCM3 can reproduce the basic features of summer mean atmospheric circulation, and the spatial distribution of precipitation in China characterized by a decrease from the southeast to northwest of China. Compared with observations, the MIROC3.2_hires simulates a more extensive area of heavy rainfall over South China, while the RegCM3 presents more reasonable spatial distribution of rainfall over this region. The improvement of simulation by RegCM3 is more evident in the seasonal evolution than that by the driving CGCM. It is found that the MIROC3.2_hires fails to reproduce the seasonal evolution of rain band by presenting the precipitation maximum stagnating over South China during the whole summer period. Meanwhile, the RegCM3 can basically capture the seasonal evolution of rainfall over eastern China during summer, characterized by three stepwise stages, i.e. pre-summer rainy season in South China, Meiyu period in the Yangtze River valley, and rainy season in North China. It suggests that the better simulation of seasonal evolution of wind in both the lower and upper troposphere may be important for the improvements of RegCM3 in simulating the seasonal rainfall evolution.