This study investigates spatial characteristics of annual and decadal precipitation in the Huaihe River basin. Daily precipitation data, obtained from meteorological gauges, are analyzed for a 51-year period, from 1961 to 2011. Precipitation is analyzed in grids (5 km²) with respect to temporal variability. The spatial distribution and intensity of annual rainfall (mm/10 year), determined by the linear regression method, reveals a slight increase of 3 mm/10 year over the basin. However, the trend did not present a significant change at 95% significance level in the most of basin. Precipitation is mostly increasing for each ten-year periods during the total 51 years. The annual precipitation randomicity was calculated from the non-uniform coefficient Cv (coefficient of variation) test and showed a significant non-uniform spatial distribution, indicating that randomicity of annual rainfall was the moderate variability. The Pettitt test determined that the abrupt change points occurred mainly in 1965, 1975 and 2002. Wavelet analysis showed that cyclic variations appeared almost every 5 to 10 years, accounting for 36% of the basin area. Meanwhile, these cycles tended to be delimited by the abrupt change points. This study aims to provide insights for water resources management, mitigation of climate change effects and water supply in the Huaihe River basin and surrounding watersheds.