Objective To understand the antimicrobial resistance of foodborne Salmonella isolates in China in 2015, and to obtain the prevalence of mcr-1 gene in colistin(CT)resistant isolates. Methods Broth microdilution method was used for antimicrobial susceptibility test of 1 070 Salmonella strains against 16 antimicrobial compounds which belonged to 10 categories, and 196 colistin resistant strains were detected for the existence of mcr-1 gene by real-time fluorescence quantitative polymerase chain reaction(PCR). Results About 71.9% (769/1 070) of the isolates showed different antimicrobial resistant levels to 16 antimicrobials, and the resistance rates to nalidixic acid(NAL), tetracycline(TET), ampicillin(AMP) and ampicillin-sulbactam(SAM) were as high as above 40%, while all strains were susceptible to carbapenems. 47.5% (508/1 070) of them were identified as multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains and were resistant to as much as nine classes of antimicrobials. There were 141 antimicrobial resistance spectrums with NAL, AMP-SAM-NAL-CT and TET as the top three spectrums. One strain of mcr-1 gene and ESBLs positive which was identified as Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica ser. London had been detected in 196 colistin resistant isolates and it was the only one strain with resistance against nice categories of antimicrobials. Serious multi-drug resistance was found in some provinces and strains recovered from raw poultry meat were detected to be the worst with resistant rate of 80.6%(349/433), followed by isolates from raw livestock meat (73.5%, 283/385). Conclusion An overall high level antimicrobial resistance was found among foodborne Salmonella isolates in China in 2015, so was the MDR condition, especially for strains recovered from some provinces and from raw poultry and livestock meat. Mcr-1 gene could be carried in foodborne Salmonella isolates recovered from China, therefore, close attention should be paid to its surveillance.