According to two highly conserved genome sequences within the helicase(NS3) region and 5'-uncoding(5' UTR) region, we designed two sets of primer pairs to detect HGV RNA by RT-nested PCR in order to study HGV infection in Chinese population. Three hundred and fifty-four serum specimens of various liver diseases were collected from Beijing, Qin Huangdao and Henan areas. Seventy-nine out of 354(22.3%) specimens were HGV RNA positive. Among 254 known clinical hepatitis/liver disease samples, 50(19.6%) were HGV RNA positive. Thirteen HGV RNA positive samples(30.2%) were derived from 43 cryptogenic or nonA-E hepatitis. In 57 commercial blood donors who were antibody positive to HCV 16(30.2%) were HGV RNA positive, suggesting HGV infection is common in various population. It may be an etiological factor which leads to nonA-E hepatitis and post-transfusion hepatitis.