The flow fields including velocities, turbulence intensities, Reynolds shear stress and turbulent kinetic energy were investigated using particle image velocimetry(PIV) to study the flow characteristics around two square cylinders in a tandem arrangement. The experiments were carried out in the range of the spacing from 1.0 to 4.0 widths of cylinder, Reynolds number of 5.3$ imes$10$^{3}$ and 1.6$ imes$10$^{4}$ respectively. Discontinuous jumping at the drag coefficient variation was found for two cylinders simultaneously when the spacing between two cylinders is varied. This phenomenon is attributed to a sudden change of the flow pattern which depends on the reattachment of the shear layer separated from the upstream cylinder. Near such a critical spacing, the changes of the flow fields as well as the effect of Reynolds number were studied in detail.