The content of four phthalate acid esters (PAEs) in air, soil, plants, organic films, and water of the arid city of Changji, China, was investigated and the concentration distribution and fate was simulated using a multimedia urban model (MUM). Analysis indicated that PAEs are ubiquitous environmental contaminants, with the dominant being DBP and DEHP. The mean PAE concentrations of air, soil, plants, organic films, and water was 5.54×10^-7 g/m³, 1.09×10^-2 g/m³, 6.57×10^-2 g/m³, 0.28 g/m³, and 9.84×10^-2 g/m³, respectively. By using MUM, we found that the total residues of PAEs in each environmental medium was 2.61×10⁷ g. The regularity of concentration distribution was organic films > sediment > plants > water > soil >air, and the regularity of total amount distribution was air > soil > water > sediment > plants > organic films. The regularity showed that air and soil were the main sink of PAEs (up to 99.59% of total mass). The reliability of the model was verified by the agreement between the measured and calculated concentrations