A recent genome-wide association study identified a common variant (rs798766) on 4p16.3 that confers susceptibility to bladder cancer. The aim of this study was to assess whether rs798766 is associated with risk of bladder cancer in a Chinese population as well. We genotyped this variant using TaqMan technology in a case-control study of 815 histologically confirmed bladder cancer patients and 1141 controls. Normal bladder tissues adjacent to tumors were used to evaluate the functionality of rs798766 using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction. We found that rs798766 CT/TT genotypes were associated with a significantly increased risk of bladder cancer (odds ratio = 1.36, 95% confidence interval = 1.10-1.67), compared with the CC genotype. Furthermore, rs798766 was significantly associated with FGFR3 messenger RNA expression. However, no significant interaction between rs798766 and tobacco smoking on bladder cancer risk was observed (P(multiplicative) = 0.785). Our results suggest that rs798766 on 4p16.3 may contribute to bladder cancer susceptibility in a Chinese population and explains an additional 3.65% of population attributable risk for bladder cancer.