Kiwifruits (Actinidia chinensis cv. Hongyang) were treated by direct cooling and gradual cooling to investigate the effect of cooling treatment on chilling injury. The direct cooling fruits were immediately cooled at $0^{circ}C$ after harvest. The gradual cooling fruits were held for 3 days at $5^{circ}C$ (from $5^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$), or for 7 days at $2^{circ}C$ (from $2^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$), or decreased in temperature from $15^{circ}C$ to $5^{circ}C$ by $5^{circ}C$ at 1 days intervals and then maintained at $5^{circ}C$ for 3 days plus a subsequent period of of 7 days at $2^{circ}C$ (from $15^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$). After the above treatments, then those fruit were stored at $0{pm}0.5^{circ}C$, 90% to 95% RH for 80 days. Gradual cooling (from $15^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$) significantly maintained higher percentage of accepted fruit and lower chilling injury index and chilling injury incidence of fruit compared with the direct cooling. Some attributes were then assayed in the fruits treated with gradual cooling (from $15^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$). Gradual cooling (from $15^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$) inhibited increases in membrane permeability, malondialdehyde content, superoxide anion production rate, and $H_2O_2$ content. At the same time, fruit cooled gradually (from $15^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$) exhibited higher superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and peroxidase activities than those treated by direct cooling during storage. The present study indicated that enhancement in antioxidant enzyme activity may be attributed to the reduction in CI symptoms by the gradual cooling treatment (from $15^{circ}C$ to $0^{circ}C$).