Abstract: Rural nonagricultural development refers to the process in which thenonagricultural industries spring up and promote the advancement of the rural society and economy. The indications of the rural nonagricultural development include the transition of the primary, secondary and tertiary industries in the rural economy and the nonagricultural displacement of rural surplus laborforces. The nonagricultural development has now become an important trend for the rural areas in our country. With the Erhai Lake ring area as a case and thevariance of the proportion of the primary industry in the rural economic structure as classification standard, this paper explores the general characteristics of the rural nonagricultural development under particular economic and geographic circumstances, and proposes the strategy of diversifiedand grade development from the perspective of the balanced development of both the urban and rural areasto promote rational development of the ruralnonagricultural development of Erhai Lake ring area.