A solar heat collection and release system with water cycling inside hollow plates was developed to address the problems currently existed in these built-in water cycling installations for solar heat collection and release in a Chinese solar greenhouse (CSG). The feasibility of the system was theoretically analyzed and verified by using a simulation software to predict the thermal environment in a CSG. According to the theoretical calculation, the amount of heat collected by the developed system, which was installed in the CSG with polystyrene wall and the indoor floor area of 400m2, can approach to approximately 350MJ, thereby being sufficient to enhance the indoor temperature for 2~3 nights in a CSG. The heat-collecting performance of the system was then preliminarily analyzed through a field test. The results showed that the collecting efficiency can maximally reach 0.93. During heat accumulation period, water temperature rise in a sunny day was approximately double than that in a cloudy day. The convective heat transfer between hollow plates and indoor air had a significant effect on the heat collecting efficiency when solar radiation was weakened. The collected heat from the system was increased with the increase of water flow in a range of 3.3~5.9m3/h. The hollow plate system investigated had lower construction cost and a simple practical design compared with conventional systems. Besides, this system did not occupy indoor cultivation area, which, as fabricated solar collector, was suitable for the transformation of traditional CSG.