Camellia sinensis germplasm in China were divided into 18 groups according to their origins, tree forms and variety types. In each group, numbers of entries were decided based on using sampling strategies combined stratification with random and cluster analysis by Ward's methods. A pre-core germplasm comprising 126 accessions from 615 Chinese tea plants was constructed.After the t-test of Shannon diversity index and the evaluation of agro-ecological characteristics, the pre-core germplasm could represent the genetic diversities of the whole collection.