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Using magnetic and clastic grain size proxies, we make quantitative estimates of past changes in Holocene rainfall and also identify variations in winter monsoon intensity from a very well-dated, high-resolution sequence of loess and palaeosols, west of the Chinese Loess Plateau. Dating by optically stimulated luminescence shows that dust deposition has been quasi-continuous at this site throughout the Holocene, whilst the intensity of soil development has varied throughout the sequence, apparently unrelated to changes in sedimentation rate. As reconstructed using an independently calibrated magnetic susceptibility/rainfall climofunction, rainfall in this region has varied from~ 75 to~ 375 mm/yr, with summer monsoon maxima centred on 10.5 ka, 6.5 ka and 3.5 ka BP. Rainfall minima occurred at the mid-Holocene (~ 5.5 ka) and also at~ 11.75 ka, 9 ka, 2 ka and 1.2 ka BP. Winter monsoon intensity has intensified …