【Background】The structure and diversity of bacterial communities are closely related to the nutrient cycling in the rhizosphere soil of tea plantations, which can be used as a biological basis for assessing the health status of tea plantations. 【Method】The bacterial communities in the rhizosphere soil of tea plantations located at different altitudes in Anxi County, Fujian Province, were detected and analyzed by the molecular fingerprinting technology of PCR-degeneration gradient gel electrophoresis (PCR-DGGE). The diversity of bacterial communities was measured using the Shannon diversity index. The distribution patterns of bacterial communities were clustered using the unweighted pairgroup method with arithmetic means, and the effects of environmental variables on the communities were tested using the method of Monte Carlo. The relationships between bacterial distributions and environmental variables were examined by redundancy analysis. 【Result】Among 14 species of bacteria obtained from the rhizosphere soil of tea plantations, 11 were unculturable species; the 3 culturable species were indentified as Rhizobium sp., Sinorhizobium sp. and Ochrobactrum sp.. The cluster analysis of DGGE profile revealed similar patterns of the bacterial communities isolated from tea plantations at the same altitude. The bacterial community with the highest Shannon diversity (H′=3.27) appeared at the altitude of 400 m a.s.l.. The synergistic effects of environmental variables explained 59.6% of the variation of bacterial communities in the rhizosphere soil. Redundancy analysis demonstrated that the bacterial communities in the rhizosphere soil were closely related to the altitudes of tea plantations. 【Conclusion and significance】The structure and diversity of bacterial communities are significantly associated with the altitudes, which may affect the efficiency of nutrient cycling and tea production, and that, the total phosphorus was the strongest environment variable factor influencing diversity of bacterial communities. Therefore, management of tea plantations should be carried out in terms of their locations taking the effect of different altitudes on patterns of bacterial communities into account.