To study the genetic polymorphism of HPA 1-16 platelet antigen alleles among unrelated volunteer donors and establish a typed platelet donor panel in Handan, typing was perfomed by polymerase chain reaction using sequence-specific primers (SSP-PCR); 148 random unrelated blood donors in Handan were genotyped for each of the HPA 1-16 antigen. The gene frequencies were analyzed and the genetype frequencies were determined by direct counting, and these data were compared with HPA distribution among various population by the chi-square test. The results indicated that HPA-1a, 2a, 4a-14a, 16a genes were found among the 16 HPAs in every sample tested. Monomorphic HPA-4a, 7a-14a, 16a were found in the samples. For HPA-1, 2, 5 and 6, a/a homozygosity was predominant with frequencies of 0.9595, 0.8108, 0.9865, 0.9797, respectively, and none of HPA b/b was found in the samples. HPA-1b, 2b, 5b, 6b were rarely found among subjects. HPA-15 had the greatest heterozygosity with a gene frequency of 0.2230, 0.5270, 0.2500 for HPA15a/15a, HPA15a/15b, HPA15b/15b, respectively. HPA-3 showed the second greatest heterozygosity with a gene frequency of 0.3851, 0.5135, 0.1014 for HPA3a/3a, HPA3a/3b, HPA3b/3b, respectively. HPA genotype frequencies showed a good fit to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. HPA1-5 gene frequencies for Chinese people in Handan were consistent with those of Chinese people in Shijiazhuang (P > 0.05). Among the HPA1-13, -15, the frequencies of HPA-1, -2, -6 for Chinese people in Handan differed appreciably from those for Chinese people in Taiwan (P < 0.05), others were similar to those of Chinese people in Taiwan. Among the HPA 1 - 8, a similarity was noted between Chinese people in Handan and Koreans (P > 0.05), except for HPA-3. Frequencies of HPA-1, -2, -5 significantly were differed from those in African Americans, as compared with HPA 1-5 (P < 0.05). Comparison of gene frequencies from HPA-1 and -5 showed significant differences between Chinese people in Handan and people in UK (P < 0.05). It is concluded that HPA-2, -3, -5, -15 of people in Western region of China have polymorphism, incompatible frequency of HPA antigen distribution is higher, which inevitably results in the increase of immunologic exposure, therefore attention must be paid to the importance of HPA-2, -3, -5, -15 in clinical disorders. This study for the first time completely analyses HPA1-16 gene frequencies in China, and provides data for establishing a typed platelet donor panel in Handan, China.