The soil physical & chemical properties under different patterns of slope land used in Gaozhou county, Guangdong Province, were studied. The result showed that vegetation with lower coverage had high soil bulk density and water runoff, the soil pH in nature vegetation patterns was lower than that in the agricultural patterns slightly. The low quality vegetation had negative effects on soil fertility. It was revealed that factors influencing organic matter content, nutrient supply, soil vegetation cover and soil compaction are critical for soil degradation, and agroforestry systems appeared to have the ability to improve soils quality in degraded hillside ecosystems.