Objective to cross-culturally adapt the Geriatric Health Promotion Scale, and to test its reliability and validity among the elderly living in the community. Methods Cross-cultural adaptation was made to the Geriatric Health Promotion Scale, and the mainland version was formed after revision and pilot test.Using convenience sampling method, 572 elderly people were selected from 3 communities in Jinzhou City of Liaoning Province, and the reliability and validity of the Chinese version scale were tested by item analysis and factor analysis. Results The Cronbach′s α coefficient was 0.893 for the whole scale, and 0.881 to 0.892 for the dimensions; the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.732; the content validity index was 0.952. Six factors were extracted through exploratory factor analysis and could explained 80.596% of the total variation.Confirmatory factor analysis showed good fitting (CFI=0.954,AGFI=0.930,RMSEA=0.048,TLI=0.974,CFI=0.981,IFI=0.981,PGFI=0.636,PNFI=0.721,CMIN/DF=2.311). Conclusion The mainland version of the Geriatric Health Promotion Scale has ideal discrimination, reliability and validity, and can be used to evaluate the health promotion level of the elderly in mainland China.