During hot air drying of root vegetables such as radish and sweet potatoes, shrinkage and casehardening occurred, and thereby the quality change appeared. Therfore the hot air drying apparatus in which air temperature, relative humidity and air velocity could be controlled was designed, and the drying and shrinking characteristics of radish and sweet potatoes were studied. Also the external factors that affected these characteristics were investigated. The whole drying process of radish and sweet potatoes could be divided into four different drying rate periods, namely constant rate period, first falling rate period, second falling rate period (a) and (b). The shrinking rate curve consisted of four periods nearly corresponding to drying rate periods. The shrinking rate slowly increased in the constant rate period, rapidly increased in the first falling rate period, and reached the highest value in the early period of the second falling rate period. The surface shrinkage was greatly affected by the thickness of sample, relative humidity and initial moisture content. The shrinking ratio was increased with decreasing thickness and increasing relative humidity and initial moisture content.