The distributions, soil environment status and potential ecological risk of heavy metals were studied in beach soil of returning the cropland into Yellow River beach region in Kaifeng by the Nemerows and Håkansons methods. The results showed that (1) as Among the average contents of the five heavy metals Pb, Cr, Hg, As and Cd, the highest was the average content of Cr, and the lowest was the average content of Pb and Hg. In addition to Hg, the coefficients of variation of other heavy metals were relatively small, indicating that the content of heavy metals was quite different at different sites, and to some extent, relecting that Hg, As and Pb were the major elements polluting the soil, among which, Pb pollution was the pollution with universality. There was little difference in the contents of Cr and Cd from village to village the coefficient of variation was small, and the contents were below the national standard level. (2) There was significant difference in the spatial distribution of soil heavy metal elements in the upper, the middle and lower sections of the study area. The upper section was clean, the middle section was slightly polluted, and the lower section was enriched with pollutants. (3) The distribution of heavy metals in the beach region inside and outside the levees of Yellow River was closely related to the distribution of the residential regions. In the upper section of the beach region (southwest), the population was large and the contents of heavy metals were high. The contents of heavy metals were lower in the near river zone than outside the levees of Yellow River. And the heavy metal contents in the middle and lower section were higher than those outside the levees of Yellow River, while the lower section (northwest) showed a tendency of pollution enrichment. (4) In the view of the average individual potential ecological risk index of heavy metals (E(r)i), the potential ecological risk of Hg reached intense levels, and the potential ecological risk of Pb's contribution to the integrated risk was 50.5%, which was the heavy metal with highest ecological risks. Cd and Pb had a moderate ecological risk, while As and Cr had minor ecological risk. Ecological hazards of heavy metals ranked in the ascending order of Hg > Pb > As > Cd > Cr. (5) The ecological hazard of the heavy metals was ranked in the order Hg > Cd > As > Pb > Cr. Based on the potential ecological risk level corresponding to the RI values, it was shown that there was moderate potential ecological risks of heavy metals in the Yellow River beach region in Kaifeng.