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Using NCEP reanalysis data and an airflow trajectory model based on the Lagrangian method, the Hybrid Single-Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model, the daily backward trajectories on the height of 850 hPa above the South China Sea (SCS) area are simulated from April to June. The onset date of the SCS summer monsoon from 1948 to 2009 is determined according to the simulated source of airflow in the monitored area of the SCS. By analyzing the SCS monsoon onset dates over the 62 years, we found that the number of years in which the SCS monsoon onset is earlier accounts for 13%, and the later years 14%, the normal years 73%, of all the 62 years. Analyses with the Lagrangian method, done in comparison with the other two methods which combine wind and potential pseudo-equivalent temperature, were performed to determine the onset dates of the SCS summer monsoon. In some years, the source of the southwest airflow in the monitored area of the SCS is in the subtropical region before the onset of the SCS monsoon, so the airflow from the subtropics can be distinguished with the airflow from the tropics by using the Lagrangian method. The simulation by the trajectory model indicated that in some years, after the onset of SCS summer monsoon, the SCS will be controlled by the southeast wind instead of the southwesterly usually expected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]