Objective To translate the Dyspnoea-12 into simplified Chinese, and to test its suitability in assessing patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease （COPD）. Methods Translation, back-translation, and cultural adaptation of the Dyspnoea-12 were conducted. Then 120 COPD patients were invited to fill out the Chinese version of the Dyspnoea-12, Medical Research Council dyspnoea scale, COPD Assessment Test (CAT) and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) to test the validity and reliability. Results The Chinese version of Dyspnoea-12 consisted of 12 items assessing two dimensions. Two factors were identified through exploratory factor analysis, accounting for 74.460% of the total variance. The correlation coefficients between Dyspnoea-12 and mMRC, CAT and HADS ranged from 0.328 to 0.690 (P＜0.01 for all). The Cronbach′s α coefficient for the scale was 0.938 and split-half reliability was 0.796. Conclusion The Chinese version of the Dyspnoea-12 has good reliability and validity, which can be used to evaluate dyspnoea in Chinese COPD patients.