Using harmonic analysis, linear regression and Kendall's τ trend, based on the 10 day SPOT-VEGETATION NDVI from 1999 to 2010, we determined the beginning and end times of vegetation growth of each year, found the monotonic trend of vegetation coverage in growing season and interpolated the trend difference and growing season change of vegetation coverage for different vegetation types. Results are as follows: (1) From 1999 to 2010, the vegetation cover in China showed a progressively increasing trend as a whole. The annual variation of vegetation cover displayed the periodicity of 4 years steady growth and 1 year sudden decline. (2) On average, Kendall's τ trend for vegetation cover in growing season in China presented a continuous improvement, being 0.2873. The improved area with high persistence was mainly distributed in the region between 30°-40°N, and to the east of 105°E. (3) The vegetation cover was controlled by the change of latitude. The trend showing improvement was more significant and persistent at low latitude with high degree of biological diversity. The vegetation cover showed serious degradation in the ecological fragile zones like the Yellow River Delta and windy-sandy region, as well as in the rapid economic development areas like the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and surrounding area of Lanzhou City.