No data have been reported on the prevalence of asthma in rural areas of China. The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence of asthmalike symptoms, reported asthma and reported asthma attacks in rural Beijing, China, and to compare the prevalence in 20-44-yr-old participants with those reported for Canada and the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS).For a cross-sectional survey, 30 villages were randomly selected in the counties of Shunyi and Tongxian, 50 km north and east respectively of the city of Beijing and within the municipality of Beijing. The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease questionnaire on bronchial symptoms translated into Chinese was completed by village doctors for each individual of w15 yrs. The survey was completed by 22,561 individuals, representing 98% of the eligible population.The prevalence of asthma-like symptoms and reported asthma attacks was higher in females than in males and increased with age. Smoking significantly increased the prevalence of symptoms; the effect in females was greater than in males. Among the 20-44-yr-olds, the prevalence of reported asthma attacks in the previous 12 months was 0.67% in rural Beijing, very much lower than that reported in ECRHS centres (3.1%), urban Canada (6.9%) and semirural Canada (5.1%), after adjusting for age and sex. The prevalence of asthma-like symptoms was also very low in rural Beijing compared with ECRHS centres and Canada.It is concluded that the prevalence of asthma-like symptoms and reported asthma was low in rural China compared with other countries, consistent with reports of the relative scarcity of asthma in farms and the "hygiene hypothesis".