Objective To describe the symptoms in patients with acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease （AECOPD）, to explore symptom clusters and the influencing factors, and to provide reference for targeted interventions. Methods A total of 137 AECOPD patients were investigated with the general information questionnaire, the Revised Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale （RMSAS） and the Modified Medical Research Council（mMRC）. Results The incidence rates of 19 symptoms ranged from 5.8% to 99.3%, of which 12 were greater than 50%.The scores of severity of symptoms were between 0.12 and 2.56.Two symptom clusters were identified through exploratory factor analysis: emotional and respiratory functional.The Cronbach′s α coefficients of the two symptom clusters were 0.826 and 0.746 respectively. Multiple linear regression indicated that monthly income, lung function grading and mMRC grading were predictive factors of severity of emotional symptom cluster （P＜0.01 for all）.The number of comorbidities, lung function grading and disease duration were the main influencing factors of respiratory functional symptom cluster （P＜0.01 for all）. Conclusion The incidence of symptoms in the RMSAS is high and the severity is at moderate to severe level in AECOPD patients. Symptoms are categorized into emotional and respiratory functional, and are influenced by economic status, complexity of diseases and severity of disease.Targeted measures should be taken based on characteristics of these patients to ameliorate symptom burden and improve quality of life.