Objective To understand the situation of contamination of seafoods by Vibrio parahaemolyticus.Methods 2?349 batches of seafood imported to Beijing during March-October 2005 were examined for V.parahaemolyticus. V.parahaemolyticus was discovered from 238(10.13%) batches. These 238 strains and the other 29 strains isolated before were further examined for the ability to hydrolyze urea, kanagawa phenomenon (KP~+) and the presence of tdh and trh genes.Results 27 strains were positive for urea hydrolysis, of which 14 strains were positive for tdh and trh genes. Among these 14 strains, 10 strains were positive for kanagawa phenomenon. All the KP~+ strains were isolated from samples of geoduck imported from Canada. Conclusion The results indicated that imported seafoods are contaminated by pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus, especially in geoduck from Canada.