OBJECTIVES: To review studies that investigated the direct and indirect costs of care for Parkinson’s disease (PD) in China. METHODS: A structured literature review on published articles in both English and Mandarin languages was conducted. Literature search was conducted using PubMed, Cochrane, WAN FANG, and VIP databases. Articles published between 2000 and 2013 were selected. The inclusion criteria included studies on Chinese population based in China only and studies that reported direct or indirect cost of PD treatment, management as well as economic burden of PD. Four reviewers (two for each language) independently selected and reviewed the articles. Subjective quality assessment of the selected articles were performed. Direct cost included cost of outpatient consultation, hospitalisation, medication, rehabilitation and the use of prescribed traditional Chinese medicine; whereas indirect cost included home care, transport, home support equipment, supplement use, and productivity loss. RESULTS: Eleven articles (10 Mandarin and 1 English) were selected and reviewed qualitatively. Approximately 80% of the articles reviewed received an average grade in terms of study quality. The average direct and indirect cost of managing PD in China reported ranged from RMB 7,000 (USD 1,157) to RMB 15,000 (USD 2,479) per annum. The reported direct cost of managing PD ranged from RMB 1,600 (USD 265) to RMB 13,000 (USD 2,149); whereas the indirect cost reported ranged from RMB 2,970 (USD 491) to RMB 13,200 (USD 2,182). Seven out of 11 articles reported cost-effectiveness results. Three papers from the same authors had reported the main factors affecting the overall economic burden of PD. CONCLUSIONS: Various combination therapy involving levodopa had higher direct costs but reduced indirect costs compared to levodopa monotherapy. In general, the reported indirect cost is higher than direct cost of PD management in China.