The invention discloses a method for detecting shield channel influence area karst under a building. A horizontal directional drilling machine is utilized to horizontally drill holes in the peripheryof a channel to be built, then in a receiving well, an ultrasonic wellbore imager performs cross-hole pullback in drill holes as an acoustic source, and cross-hole acoustic waves acquired by the ultrasonic wellbore imager are acquired through a data acquisition instrument to form CT input data; and acoustic wave tomographic inversion is performed on the CT input data, mapping software is utilizedto display a cross-hole acoustic wave tomographic map, and finally, a karst distribution situation in a channel range under the building is analyzed based on acoustic wave velocity difference of a detection target and surrounding rock thereof and an attenuation law in an elastic wave propagation process. The karst detection method can overcome limitation of site conditions, an anti-interference capability is high, detection precision and resolution are high, a karst development situation in the subway tunnel range under the building can be precisely detected, risks of construction of the tunnel underneath passing the building are reduced, and the method has good social benefits and economic benefits.