In order to study soil quality of riparian zone in the upper reaches of the Hunhe River, a field investigation combined with laboratory analysis was employed to determine soil microbial quantity and enzyme activity characteristics of natural shrub grassland, secondary forest, artificial pine forest and corn field. The four vegetation riparian zones, in order of decreasing soil microbial quantity, were natural shrub grassland and secondary forest, artificial pine forest, and corn field. Bacteria occupied the most in the soil microbial groups, with proportions of 99.87%~99.94%. The activities of soil invertase, urease, phosphatase, polyphenol oxidase and catalase were 12.95~76.43 mg/(g·d), 0.35~1.80, 1.32~6.39, 0.35~1.61 mg/(g·d) and 0.93~3.27 ml/(g·20 min), respectively. The four riparian zones, in order of decreasing activities of the five soil enzymes, were natural shrub grassland and secondary forest, artificial pine forest, and corn field. By correlation analysis, the quantity of bacteria had a significantly positive correlation with the activities of the five enzymes, the quantity of actinomyces had a significantly positive correlation with the activities of the soil enzymes except hydrogen peroxide enzyme, and the quantity of fungi had significantly positive correlation with the activity of sucrase, phosphatase and polyphenol oxidase. In the four vegetation riparian zones, natural shrub grassland and secondary forest had the greatest microbial quantity, highest soil enzyme activity, and best soil quality and therefore, they are very good forms of riparian zone.