Introduction. The relevance of the study is due to the increased need for environmental education of students in the People's Republic of China (PRC). In this regard, visual activity in the lessons of fine arts has great pedagogical potential. Purpose: To identify and characterize the pedagogical potential of visual activity in the environmental education of students in the PRC. Materials and methods: The theoretical basis of the research was the works of Chinese scientists and practical teachers on environmental education and art education of students in China. The research methods were the theoretical and comparative analysis of the approaches of Chinese scientists to the implementation of the process of environmental education in the lessons of fine arts at school. Results: The pedagogical potential of visual activity is manifested in the functional capabilities of visual activity, which include: aesthetic-ecological function that promotes the manifestation of aesthetic and ecological behavior by students in all types of activities with a focus on universal values and awareness of their priority importance; cognitive-heuristic function that allows a student to penetrate the author's idea of the work, discover new knowledge and apply it in creative activity independently; communicative function that promotes the development of students' communicative skills in the process of communicating with each other, with the world of art and nature, introduction to national and world culture; social function that promotes the assimilation of social values, norms and behaviors, methods of analyzing the surrounding reality, types of relations accepted in society. Conclusion. Environmental knowledge is better assimilated in the course of visual activity if a student has developed an emotional and sensory sphere, artistic and imaginative thinking, aesthetic perception, which allows him/her to perceive natural objects and phenomena, create their own artistic image of them based on environmental knowledge and consolidate this knowledge with the help of visual means in the form of a specific artistic works.