Arborophila ardens, an endangered species, has a strict habitat preference and sparse population. In order to further study evolution and phylogenetic relationship of Arborophila, the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of A. ardens was obtained by Illumina Hiseq2000 high-throughput sequencing. The comparative genomic analyses were made among four Arborophila species, and phylogenetic relationship of Arborophila was discussed. The results revealed that: (1) the complete mitogenome of A. ardens is 16 730 bp in length, including 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), two ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs) and a control region (CR); (2) Arborophila species were affected by purifying selection, and more nonsynonymous substitutions were accumulated in the process of evolution; (3) Arborophila was at the basal position of Phasianidae within the phylogenetic tree, and A. gingica was placed as sister to A. rufogularis, while A. ardens formed the basal position of Arborophila, which indicated a distant genetic relationship with other three species.