Suspension cells of Taxus chinensis were cultivated in both shake flasks and bioreactors. The production of taxuyunnanine C (TC) was greatly reduced when the cell cultures were transferred from shake flasks to bioreactors. Oxygen supply, shear stress and stripping-off of gaseous metabolites were considered as potential factors affecting the taxane accumulation in bioreactors. The effects of oxygen supply on the cell growth and metabolism were investigated in a stirred tank bioreactor by altering its oxygen transfer rate (OTR). It was found that both the pattern and amount of TC accumulation were not much changed within the range of OTR as investigated. Comparative studies on the cell cultivation in low shear and high shear generating bioreactors suggest that the decrease of TC formation in bioreactors was not due to the different shear environments in different cultivation vessels. An incorporation of 2% CO(2) in the inlet air was beneficial for the cell growth, but did not improve the TC production in bioreactors. Furthermore, the effects of different levels of ethylene addition into the inlet air on the cell growth and TC production were investigated in a bubble column reactor. The average cell growth rate increased from 0.146 to 0.204 d(-1) as the ethylene concentration was raised from 0 to 50 ppm, and both the content and production of TC were also greatly improved by ethylene addition. At an ethylene concentration of 18 ppm, the highest TC content and volumetric production in the reactor reached 13.28 mg/(g DW) and 163.7 mg/L, respectively, which were almost the same as those in shake flasks. Compared with the control reactor (bubble column without ethylene supplementation), the maximum TC content was increased by 82% and the total production of TC was doubled. The results indicate that ethylene is a key factor in scaling up the process of the suspension cultures of T. chinensis from a shake flask to a bioreactor.