The growth rate of stalagmite is an index of distinguishing warm and cold climates as evidenced by a synthetic study of large stalagmite sections, synthetic dating of representative stalagmite sections in Yunnan, Guizhou, Hunan and Guangxi provinces. The growth rate is over 10 mm/100 a in warm humid climate in the interglacial or postglacial period, while that is 1 mm/100 a or less in the transition from warm humid to cold climate or cold stage. A growth rate of about 1 mm/100 a represents cold climate in the glacial period, and a growth rate close to 10 mm/100 a or much more indicates a transition from cold climate in the glacial period to warm humid climate period or interglacial period. The minimal growth rate is often indicative of cold climate and even depositional break and sudden change of climate and geology and hazardous events. The growth rate of stalagmite is not so reliable and should avoid using only the growth rate to calculate the age sequence of stalagmite in a long time span or ages of events. The growth rate should not be calculated across cycles to avoid missing some important information such as depositional break, climatic, geological and hazard events. Depositional breaks in stalagmite are very common and are especially more frequent in cold climate in the glacial period. The observation and dating age data suggest that the accumulative time of depositional break only accounts for 28. 92%-76. 26% of stalagmite formation and that of warm climate in the Holocene is only 13.80% of stalagmite formation.