Canopy gaps are small-scale openings in forest canopies which offer suitable micro-climatic conditions for tree regeneration. The subtropical secondary forest in Hunan Province was focused, and multi-temporal light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and survey data were adopted to analyze effects of different canopy gaps on sapling density and height growth. The results showed that both size of gap and position within gap significantly affected sapling density distribution. Shade intolerant sapling was mainly distributed in central zones of small-sized gap and transition zones of large-sized gap, in which the density got the maximum (647 trees/hm2). Shade tolerant sapling was usually appeared in edge zones of gaps, and the maximum density (941 trees/hm2) was occurred in medium-sized gap. The size of gap significantly affected sapling height growth, shade intolerant and shade tolerant sapling had the greatest growth rate of 69.3cm/a and 57.7cm/a in large-sized and medium-sized gaps, respectively. Height growth of shade intolerant sapling in central zones was significantly higher than those in other zones, while shade tolerant sapling height growth was irrespective of their position within the gap. Results of mixed linear model suggested that size of gap had the main effect on sapling height growth, which exhibited aggregation among different levels of gaps. The higher density and more rapid height growth rate were got in the gap with size of 50~150m2, which could be the optimal gap size for facilitating community succession of subtropical secondary forest.