Shallow landslides caused by extreme rainfall have resulted in serious environmental damage and losses. In order to explore the effects of land use, vegetation types and topographic factors on shallow landslides under extreme rainfall conditions, this study conducted a field investigation on shallow landslides caused by extreme rainfall from October 3 to 6, 2021 in Caijiachuan Watershed of Ji County, Shanxi Province, and analyzed the characteristics and process of extreme rainfall, the number and damaged area of shallow landslide under different land uses, vegetation and terrain conditions. The results showed that: (1) The extreme rainfall was 31.2% of the annual average rainfall, reaching 161.3 mm, the duration of rainfall was 84 hours, the peak rainfall intensity was 7 mm/h, the average rainfall intensity was 2.1 mm/h, and the frequency of rainfall of this degree was 0.16%. (2) A total of 479 shallow landslides occurred in the small watershed of farmland, plantation and secondary forest in Caijiachuan basin, with the damage area of 183 881 m², and 90% of the shallow landslide area was less than 885 m². (3) The number and damage area of shallow landslides per unit area were as follows: small watershed of agricultural land (214 /km² and 109 241 m²/km²) > small watershed of plantation forest (163 /km² and 48 779 m²/km²) > small watershed of secondary forest (42 /km² and 17 176 m²/km²). At the small watershed scale, the effect of forest vegetation on shallow landslide prevention was significantly higher than that of agricultural land, and the effect of secondary forest was better than that of artificial forest. (4) The slope of shallow landslide was 10°~80°, the number of shallow landslide and the damaged area increased with the increases of slopes, and reached the peak in the range of 40°~50°. When the slope was greater than 50°, the number of shallow landslide and the damaged area decreased with the increases of slopes. Slope was the dominant factor affecting shallow landslide. (5) Shallow landslides mainly occurred on the slope with slope aspect of 22.5°~337.5°. The number and damage area of shallow landslides did not show obvious regularity with slope aspect, and slope aspect had little influence on shallow landslides.