Abstract: Physical inactivity is the fourth leading risk factor for global mortality.Reducing physical inactivity is one of the most important topics in the public health in the 21st century.Measuring, surveilling and assessing the energy expenditure and intensity of physical activities are inevitable steps of finding solutions.The Compendium of Physical Activities, as a resource for assessing and categorizing the energy expenditure of physical activities, was invented by Ainsworth et al. in the United States. Since its first publication in 1993, it has been widely recognized and applied abroad and it has completed two updates in 2000 and 2011. However, in China, it was not well-known and less applied with inconsistent translations.So, under the permission of Ainsworth, the main creator of the Compendium of Physical Activities, the translation group translated the 2011 version into Chinese and interviewed Ainsworth.The history, content, Chinese translation, situational application and future plans of the Compendium of Physical Activities are comprehensively introduced, aiming to promote this tool that directly quantifies the energy expenditure of physical activities, standardize its Chinese translation, promote its awareness and flexibility of applications, and finally push the development of physical activity research and practice in China.