OBJECTIVES:   Hypertension is one of the key risk factors for cardiovascular disease, stroke and renal failure. Limited data is available on prescription patterns of the antihypertension in China in recent years. The objective of this study was to assess the prescription patterns of antihypertensive medicines for outpatients in the real-world conditions in China. METHODS:  A cross-sectional study was conducted to describe the current prescribing practices for outpatients diagnosed with hypertension, from May 2011 to May 2015. Prescribing patterns of antihypertensive medicines were analysed, including monotherapy, two-drug combination therapy and three-drug combination therapy. For each pattern, prescriptions of different classes of medicines were studied. In addition, different drugs in each class were described for monotherapy. RESULTS: A total of 18,562 outpatients were included in the study, 51% was female, age ranged from 14 to 107 years old. The prescription analysis indicated that monotherapy pattern was the most frequently prescribed (55.6%), followed by two-drug combination (30.9%) and three-drug combination (13.5%). Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) ranked the highest as monotherapy (55.0%). The combination of CCBs and angiotensin-I receptor blockers (ARBs) or CCBs and angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) accounted for the highest proportion in two-drug therapy (39.3%). The combination of CCBs, ARBs/ACEIs and beta blockers (BB) was the most frequently prescribed in three-drug therapy (37.7%). Additionally, in monotherapy, Amlodipine was the most prescribed agent in CCBs class (56.5%). In the other classes, Valsartan in ARB or ACEI class (35.0%), Indapamide in DI class (41.1%), Bisoprolol Fumarate in BB class(42.2%), and Terazosin Hydrochloride in the others (57.5%). CONCLUSIONS: The result observed that majority of outpatients in this study were prescribed monotherapy, followed by two drugs, a few required three of drugs. It is found that the most frequently used class of antihypertensive drug was CCBs, of which Amlodipine was the most frequently prescribed drug.