A switching method for Ethernet path protection is provided in the disclosure. The method includes: setting a group of Traffic Engineering Service Instances (TESIs) protected by a protection group; detecting statuses of a working entity and a protection entity; implementing the path protection switching according to an outbound port configured for Ethernet Switching Path (ESP) of the TESI at the endpoint of the protection group and in conjunction with a corresponding protection switching mechanism selected in current status detection. A switching system for Ethernet path protection is also provided in the disclosure, wherein a switching unit is configured to implement the path protection switching according to the outbound port configured for the ESP of the TESI at the endpoint of the protection group and in conjunction with the corresponding protection switching mechanism selected in current status detection. The method and system of the disclosure can enhance the speed of fault recovery, reduce nodes for the protection switching, be beneficial to network optimization, and ensure the reliability of end-to-end traffic.