Abstract: Firms’ past export experience can reduce the sunk costs related to entry into new trade relationships (export new products and enter new export markets) through learning by exporting, which facilitates firms’ export expansion. Based on the firm-product-destination level China’s customs data from 2000 to 2005, this paper uses a linear probability model to test the mechanism behind the role of export experience on firms’ export expansion. The results suggest that firms’ own and others’ export experience have an inverted U-shaped effect on firms’ export expansion, which is different by firms’ ownership, destinations in various income groups and modes of trade on a certain extent.