The present invention provides a handover method, a terminal, a base station, and a system, where the base station includes: a processing unit, configured to obtain first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate that a terminal is allowed to perform a forward handover; and a sending unit, configured to send the first indication information obtained by the processing unit to the terminal, so that the terminal sends a forward handover request message to a second base station according to the first indication information, receives a forward handover command message sent by the second base station according to the forward handover request message, and performs a forward handover from the first base station to the second base station according to the forward handover command message. Therefore, control by a base station over a handover process of a terminal can be improved in a wireless communications system.