Soil physicochemical properties (e.g. soil organic matter, moisture, pH, soil type, etc.) not only influence the toxicity of heavy metals, but also contribute to differences in microbial community structure. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the long-term and short-term effects of heavy metals on microbial biomass and the microbial community in soils of similar physicochemical properties. Our aims were to simultaneously compare the effects of Cd, Cu, Zn and their combined action on microbial biomass and bacterial community structure, both in a long term Chinese field trials and short-term laboratory experiments on the same soils. Our hypothesis was that there are comparable relationships between the effects of heavy metals measured in the environment and in the laboratory, so that laboratory results can be used as valid predictors of the environmental effects of heavy metals in soil. Despite the low Cd concentrations in the field soil (maximum metal concentrations 300 Zn, 500 Cu, 1.5 mg Cd kg^-1 soil), Cd apparently produced the most significant negative correlation with biomass C. However, in the laboratory experiment (250, 400 and 1.5 mg kg^-1) there were no decreases in biomass C or ATP, or changes in microbial community structure at lower metal concentrations and only at the high Cd +Zn and Cd + Zn + Cu concentrations. At the heavy metal concentrations applied in the laboratory experiment, the effects of Cu on the microbial biomass and bacterial community were greater than Cd and Zn. Although Cd had no significant effect on the microbial biomass below 1.5 mg kg^-1, the synergistic effect between Cd and Cu made a significant difference to the bacterial community. There was also a competitive relationship between Cd and Zn. Therefore, should heavy metal standards be applied in the future based on their effects on soil microbes, these results suggest that it is important that the combined toxicity of heavy metals should be considered, rather than the activities of individual metals. Based on this study, we also conclude that there is little or no relationship between field and comparable laboratory experiments on the effects of heavy metals on microbial processes. Also, determining the effects of individual heavy metals on the microbial community under field conditions is likely to give false conclusions when other metals are also present.