A dual field of view lidar for observing atmospheric aerosols is described. The lidar has two independent receiving fields. One observes higher atmosphere by noncoaxial system, and the other observes lower atmosphere (especially planetary boundary layer) by coaxial system. The higher atmospheric data are obtained by combining analog and photon counting. It effectively improves observing ability limited by large dynamic range of the receiving signals. The observing data are shown and analyzed. The results show that this lidar is an effective tool for observing atmospheric aerosols. The reliability has been validated by comparing with another lidar system.