The invention discloses multi-city public bike rental system and method. The system comprises a main control center, and a plurality of city sub-control centers which are in communication connection with the main control center; each city sub-control center controls a plurality station controllers by a communication manner; each station controller controls a plurality of lockers of a station; the main control center comprises a main control communication module which communicates with each city sub-control center, a main control database for storing online data of each city sub-control center of the system, and a main control controller module for receiving and analyzing data from each city sub-control center and sending an instruction to each city sub-control center; the main control communication module and the main control database are in bidirectional connection with the main control controller module. The system is arranged at the main control center of each city sub-control center and used for performing coordinative forwarding, determining and analyzing of data among the city sub-control centers, so as to fuse the originally dispersed and independent city branches and achieve long-distance renting.