Objective To study the significance of human rhinovirus C as a pathogen and the clini-cal features of human rhinovirus C infection in pediatric intensive care unit. Methods From November 2010 to April 2012,570 nasopharyngeal aspirates specimens were collected from children who were admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with respiratory infections. Nest reverse transcription-polymerase chain reactions were applied to detect the human rhinovirus C. The other common respiratory viruses were detected by multi-plex polymerase chain reaction. The clinical data were collected. Results One hundred and seventy human rhinovirus positive samples ( 29. 8%) were detected in 570 nasopharyngeal aspirates specimens. The VP2/VP4 and 5′UTR region of the human rhinovirus genome was amplified from 170 human rhinovirus positive samples with 80. 6%(136/170) success. While 20. 0%(34/170) samples in total were unclassified to spe-cies. There were 85 single infected samples including 52 of type A,7 of type B,26 of type C. The nucleotide homology was 74. 0% to 99. 2% and the nucleotide variations was 3. 4% to 32. 3% in stains of human rhino-virus C. The late fall and early winter were the epidemic seasons of human rhinovirus C infection. Cough,fe-ver, polypnea and wheezing were the common symptoms. Conclusion Human rhinovirus C is the major cause of infectious disease in pediatric critical illnesses. Human rhinovirus C infections often cause cough, fever,polypnea and wheezing.