Water quality parameters including TOC, UV(254), pH, chlorine dosage, bromide concentration and disinfection by-products were measured in water samples from 41 water treatment plants of six selected cities in China. Chloroform, bromodichloromethane, dibromochloromethane, dichloroacetic acid and trichloroacetic acid were the major disinfection by-products in the drinking water of China. Bromoform and dibromoacetic acid were also detected in many water samples. Higher concentrations of trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids were measured in summer compared to winter. The geographical variations in DBPs showed that TTHM levels were higher in Zhengzhou and Tianjin than other selected cities. And the HAA5 levels were highest in Changsha and Tianjin. The modeling procedure that predicts disinfection by-products formation was studied and developed using artificial neural networks. The performance of the artificial neural networks model was excellent (r > 0.84).