The authors here reconstruct the sedimentary evolution of South China Sea since Oligocene using samples from Ocean Drilling Programn (ODP) site 1148 in the northern South China Sea based on a multi-proxy approach including monomineralic quartz oxygen isotope ratios (δ18O), grain-size of isolated terrigenous materials, terrigenous mineral accumulation rate and SEM analysis of isolated quartz. It was found that the sedimentary evolution of South China Sea Basin could be divided into five stages: period of initial expansion (34~28.5 Ma), period of intense tectonic activity (28.5~23 Ma), period of reduced tectonic activity (23~16.5 Ma), period of thermal subsidence (16.5~3.5 Ma) and period of Taiwan uplift (3.5 Ma to present).