The present invention discloses the method, equipment and system for selecting a donor cell, and the method comprises the following steps: a relay node acquires the donor cell configuration information for the relay node; if the relay node determines, based on the donor cell configuration information, that the currently serving cell is listed in the donor cell configuration information, the relay node continues to work in the cell; otherwise, the relay node selects another cell listed in the donor cell configuration information to access. The present invention can improve the controllability of the selection of a donor cell by a relay node, thereby causing the relay node to quickly select a donor cell and access to the donor cell.