Tomato spotted wilt virus (TSWV) is well established in most countries worldwide, while it is rarely reported in China. In this report, we have determined the complete nucleotide sequence of a TSWV isolate named TSWV-YN infecting tomato in Yunnan province in southwestern China. The tripartite genome of TSWV-YN was found to consist of L, M and S RNAs of 8910, 4773 and 2970 nt, respectively. The complete genome sequence and the sequence of each genomic region of TSWV-YN from China were compared to those of four other TSWV isolates from Brazil and Korea. The phylogenetic relationship of the Chinese TSWV-YN isolate to other TSWV isolates of different geographic origin, based on the nucleotide sequences of the glycoprotein (GP) and nucleocapsid (N) genes, was also analyzed in this study.