Climate in China varies from arid to semi-arid and semi-humid to humid, inducing a variety of hydrological phenomena. The Chinese population has tripled during the last 50 years, to reach 1.3 billion. Under the pressure of the increasing population, in northern China the scarcity of water resources is becoming a bottleneck for social and economic development, and has led to the widespread degradation of natural ecosystems and the environment, while in southern China flooding is a great threat and the potential risks are increasing steadily. Accurate predictions of droughts and floods are extremely important to these regions. China is changing from traditional water resources development to water resources management for sustainable development, and needs advanced hydrology for this. The contributions here were selected from an International PUB (Predictions in Ungauged Basins) meeting in China, and provide a cross-section of the innovative research there.