An aerobic, Gram-negative, yellow-pigmented bacterial strain, designated 0533(T), was isolated from frozen soil from the China No. 1 glacier. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequence demonstrated that strain 0533(T) was a member of the genus Flavobacterium and exhibited 97.1-98.7 % 16S rRNA sequence similarity with its nearest phylogenetic neighbours. Strain 0533(T) exhibited phenotypic and chemotaxonomic characteristics common to the genus Flavobacterium: menaquinone-6 (MK-6) was the predominant quinone and iso-C(15 : 0), C(17 : 1)ω6c, anteiso-C(15 : 0), iso-C(15 : 0) 3-OH, C(15 : 1)ω6c, iso-C(16 : 0) 3-OH, summed feature 3 (comprising C(16 : 1)ω7c and/or C(16 : 1)ω6c), iso-C(15 : 1) G and iso-C(17 : 0) 3-OH were the major fatty acids (>5 %). The DNA G+C content was 32.5 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic and genotypic data, a novel species, Flavobacterium sinopsychrotolerans sp. nov., is proposed. The type strain is 0533(T) (=CGMCC 1.8704(T) =JCM 16398(T)).