The competitive adsorption and desorption of Pb(II) and Cu(II) ions in the soil of three sites in North China were investigated using single and binary metal solutions with 0.01 mol·L CaCl as background electrolyte. The desorption isotherms of Pb(II) and Cu(II) were similar to the adsorption isotherms, which can be fitted well by Freundlich equation ( >0.96). The soil in the three sites had greater sorption capacities for Pb(II) than Cu(II), which was affected strongly by the soil characteristics. In the binary metal solution containing 1∶1 molar ratio of Pb(II) and Cu(II), the total amount of Pb(II) and Cu(II) adsorption was affected by the simultaneous presence of the two metal ions, indicating the existence of adsorption competition between the two metal ions. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy was used to investigate the interaction between soil and metal ions, and the results revealed that the carboxyl and hydroxyl groups in the soil were the main binding sites of metal ions.