This paper summarizes lake changes in the arid or semi-arid inland mainland Asia since the beginning of 20-century, and further investigates the possible causing, especially the effects of climatic change.In the northern Mongolia and eastern Inner Mongolia, the lakes show a general increase in water stand, which is caused by the increase in precipitation.Meanwhile, the temperature rising is favourable for melting the frost underground water and augmenting the soil tension water and runoff.In the western Central Asia, the water level of Caspian Sea has turned to rise since 1978, which is also associated with the increase in moisture condition in the catchment.In the mountainous central Asia, most lakes show a general decrease in water level.These lake level drop are caused either by the trend of dry and warm condition, or by the human activities, or by both.The rainfall record indicates a slightly reduction of rainfall, particularly the reduction of winter rainfall, which presumably related to the increase in winter temperature resulted in the shift of westerlies in winter time.Decrease in precipitation result in more water to be channeled and irrigated, therefore, the lake shrinkages will be speeded up.