Soil mechanics is a practice-oriented subject. There are a number of tricky problems for the conventional classroom theory teaching, including the diverse knowledge points, complicated content system and disjunction between theory and practice, and the experiment teaching is also constrained by the factors of time, space and resources (e.g. teaching hours, site and equipment), which lead to an overall poor teaching effect. Enlightened by the principle of virtual-actual combination, the soil mechanics teaching team at Sun Yat-sen University carry out the teaching reformation exploration. On the one hand, we introduce the physical model into the theory teaching, which helps promote students’ comprehension and recognition of the theoretical model, abstract concept and engineering practice. On the other hand, we construct the simulation platform with the use of virtual reality technology, which helps overcome the limitation of time, space and resources in traditional experiment teaching. The virtual-actual combination based teaching means is able to aid in stimulating students’ initiative and enthusiasm for learning, cultivation of their innovative thoughts, promotion of the teaching quality and effectiveness of soil mechanics.