In Recent years, flood damage in rural China dramatically increased as a result of more frequent and severe floods. Although the policy-oriented agriculture insurance for natural disasters has been available in China, its coverage only applies to crops and livestock, not residents’ real estate and household property. In this paper, we investigate whether residents in rural China are willing to insure their property against flood damage and what kind of factors influence their willingness to seek insurance protection. Based on the national survey we conducted over 15 provinces in the summer of 2012, with 1322 valid observations, socio-economic, flood risks, insurance experience and region variable are analyzed using different models. The results show that there exists a strong need for flood insurance in rural China, and factors including flood experience in past 30 years, the elapsed time since the latest serious flood, income, and insurance experience influence rural residents’ willingness to participate in flood insurance. Policy suggestions for flood insurance are provided to the insurance industry and Chinese government at the end.