By supplementing natural saline-alkali water into desalinated prawn-cultivating pond, this paper studied the survival ability of Litopenaeus vannamei under saline-alkali water environment. The results showed that the survival duration of untamed juvenile shrimp was more than 96 hours at the alkalinity of saline-alkali water from 5.15 to 19.24 mmol x L(-1), and less than 0.75 hours at the alkalinity from 23.41 to 38.78 mmol x L(-1). The survival duration of tamed juvenile shrimp was more than 24 hours at the alkalinity from 5.15 to 38.78 mmol x L(-1). The upper limit of alkalinity adapted by untamed juvenile shrimp was about 10 mmol x L(-1), and the adaptability to the increasing disparity in alkalinity was under 8 mmol x L(-1). The adaptability of juvenile shrimp could be increased by the increase of tamed standard, and that of tamed juvenile shrimp to the alkalinity of 30 mmol x L(-1) was from 2 to 4 mmol x L(-1) and from 3 to 25 mmol x L(-1) for the alkalinity disparity increase and decrease, respectively. Litopenaeus vannamei could be cultivated in the saline-alkali water with an alkalinity of 32 mmol x L(-1) in west Jilin Province.