China's forests rank fifth in the world by area, covering a broad climatic gradient from cold-temperate to tropical zones, and play a key role in the global carbon cycle. Studies of forest soil respiration (R_s) have increased rapidly in China over the last two decades, but the resulting R_s data need to be summarized. Here, we compile a comprehensive dataset of R_s in China's undisturbed forest ecosystems from the literature published up to 31 December 2018, including monthly R_s and the concurrently measured soil temperature (N=8317), mean monthly R_s (N=5003), and annual R_s (N=634). Detailed plot information was also recorded, such as geographical location, climate factors, stand characteristics, and measurement description. We examine some aspects of the dataset – R_s equations fitted with soil temperature, temperature sensitivity (Q₁₀), monthly variations, and annual effluxes in cold-temperate, temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones. We hope the dataset will be used by the science community to provide a better understanding of the carbon cycle in China's forest ecosystems and reduce uncertainty in evaluating of carbon budget at a large scale. The dataset is publicly available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.943617 (Sun et al., 2022).