In rural backwards areas teacher recruitment and retention remains a major problem in many countries. In order to improve the overall quality of rural teachers, the Chinese government has issued a number of important policy documents to attract, retain and encourage outstanding teachers in recent years. Among them, teacher's salary is an important policy tool, and its effect remains to be observed. In this paper, we used questionnaire survey data from five counties in Liaoning, Yunnan, Guizhou, Chongqing and Guangxi Provinces in 2016, and using investment model and compensatory wage difference theory to explore the relationship between teachers' salary and their turnover intention in rural primary and secondary schools. The results show that about 20% of the rural teachers tended to leave. The average salary of rural teachers in five counties was lower than that of urban employees in the same period. Teachers' salary level is the primary factor that affects teachers' turnover intention, and existing rural teachers' subsidies (153 yuan monthly) are too low to retain teacher. Non-monetary factors, such as students' group characteristics and teacher professional development activities, also have significant impact on teacher turnover intention. Male and unmarried teachers are more likely to leave. Also, the related policies of retaining rural teachers are discussed.