The propagation characteristics of the photonic crystal fibers (PCF) are numerically analyzed using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. The dispersion characteristics and the birefringent properties of PCF with any given transversal structure can be obtained by the FDTD method. To improve numerical precision, the anisotropic perfectly matched layer (APML) is used as an absorbing boundary condition in computing. The propagation characteristics of PCF are wholly determined by its transversal structure. One type of PCF with symmetric air-silica structure and two types of PCF with asymmetric air-silica structure are analyzed numerically. Numerical results show that it may exhibit high birefringence in a properly designed asymmetric PCF (whose birefringence can be as high as 0.07). It is shown that the FDTD method can be effectively used in the analysis and design of the PCF with special dispersion and polarization characteristics.