This papers aims to explore the response of ammonia oxidizing bacteria（AOB） and ammonia oxidizing archaea（AOA） communities to elevation changes in the dry-hot valleys of Panzhihua City, China, and further reveal the nitrogen biogeochemical cycling of this area. Soil samples were collected from the tobacco cultivation field of different altitudes（e.g. 1600 m, 1800 m, and 2000 m） in the dry-hot valleys of Miyi county, Panzhihua City, China. Chemical analysis and terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism（T-RFLP） were used to analyze the soil physicochemical properties and community structures and diversity of AOB and AOA, respectively. The variation of AOA and AOB communities and the driving factors in farmland soils at different altitudes were also investigated. The results showed that the pH value of soils from the three different elevations were below seven which suggests that the soils being studied were acidic soils. The contents of soil organic carbon（SOC）, total nitrogen（TN）, available potassium（AK） and ammonium nitrogen（NH+4-N） decreased along the increase of elevation. The contents of alkali-hydrolyzable nitrogen（AN）, available phosphorus（AP）, and nitrate nitrogen（NO-3-N） first increased and then decreased along the increase of elevation. The highest contents of the AN, AP, and NO-3-N were detected in the 1800 m elevation while the lowest were detected in the 2000 m. The diversity index of AOA community increased along the increase of altitude while the diversity index of AOB peaked in 1800 m, and both the lowest diversity index of AOA and AOB were detected in 1600 m elevation. Nitrososphaera and Nitrosospira were the dominant species of AOA and AOB in the dry-hot valleys of Panzhihua City. Redundancy analysis（RDA） showed that the SOC, AK, and NO-3-N were key factors in shaping the AOA and AOB communities. In total, both of the composition and diversity of soil AOA and AOB community varied significantly along the increase of altitude in the dry-hot valleys in Panzhihua City, and closely related with SOC, AK, and NO-3-N. The results provide a theoretical basis for revealing the altitude distribution pattern of nitrogen cycling related microorganisms in red soil in dry-hot valley.