Objective To translate the English version of Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) into Chinese,and to test the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of SAQ. Methods The SAQ was developed into Chinese version through translation, back-translation and cross-culture adaption. The reliability and validity of the Chinese version of SAQ were tested in 823 first-line nurse managers in Henan. Results The scale content validity index was 0.90 of the Chinese SAQ, and the item content validity index ranged from 0.83 to 0.96. The correlations between the items and the full scale, the dimensions and the full scale separately ranged from 0.32 to 0.64 and 0.50 to 0.81 (P<0.01). The confirmatory factor analysis resulted in a good model fit for the six dimensions and the full construct, the goodness-of-fit index was 0.96, Tucker-Lewis index was 0.93, comparative fit index was 0.95, and root mean square error of approximation was 0.06. The Cronbach alpha coefficient for the scale was 0.913 and for the six dimensions were 0.565, 0.655, 0.825, 0.804, 0.880, 0.725 separately, the test-retest reliability coefficient was 0.934. Conclusions The Chinese version of SAQ is a valid and reliable tool to assess the safety culture of first-line nurse managers in Chinese hospitals.