Objective To observe the clinical characteristics of ocular albinism type 1 (OA1) in China.Methods Sixteen patients with OA1 and eight female carriers (eight OA1 patients and four carriers were from the same family) were enrolled in this study. All subjects were examined for corrected visual acuity, slit-lamp microscopy and GPR143 gene mutation detection. Some subjects also received indirect ophthalmoscopy, photography of anterior segment and ocular fundus, retinoscopy and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Iris pigmentation was divided into type A, B and C according to the above findings. Type A: slight pigmentation; type B: uneven pigmentation; type C: large patch of hypo-pigmentation with hippus. Result The corrected visual acuity of 16 OA1 patients was from 0.1 to 0.3. All the OA1 patients have bilateral horizontal nystagmus without strabismus. All eight subjects received retinoscopy have medium to low hypermetropia and astigmatism. Type A, B and C iris pigmentation were found in eight (50.0%), seven (43.7%) and one (6.3%) patients, respectively. Two (25.0%) carriers have Type A iris pigmentation, and other six carriers (75.0%) were normal. There is no typical albinism retinopathy, however macular foveal structures were never found in these patients. Four carriers have fundus striate or uneven hypo-pigmentation. The macular foveal structure of all the carriers was normal. The macular foveal structure was not found in three subjects who underwent examination of OCT. GPR143 gene mutation was found in all the OA1 patients (100.0%) and all the carriers.Conclusions The major clinical characteristics of Chinese OA1 patients are foveal hypoplasia and GPR143 gene mutation.