ObjectiveTo investigate the reporting of search strategies of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) in China. MethodsWe electronically searched WanFang Data, VIP, CNKI and CBM for clinical practice guidelines developed in China from inception to December 2012. Two reviewers independently screened guidelines, extracted data, and analyzed search strategies in these guidelines. ResultsA total of 380 Chinese CPGs were included, of which, only 13 reported search strategies of evidence, 9 in China reported search terms, 5 reported retrieval time of Chinese CPGs, and only 3 completely reported search terms, retrieval time and search databases. ConclusionThe reporting rate of search strategies of evidence in Chinese CPGs is fairly low and Chinese CPGs lack unified reporting criteria. We suggest that the developers of Chinese guideline should apply the reporting items of AGREE Ⅱ and the criteria of Conference on Guideline Standardization (COGS) to report CPGs.