Abstract: Objective: To report the design of the physical growth and development survey for Chinese newborns by different gestational ages and the technical process and methods of establishing the growth standards for Chinese newborns. Methods: From June 2015 to November 2018, nine cities including Beijing, Harbin, Xi'an, Shanghai, Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Fuzhou and Kunming were selected to investigate newborn infants with gestational age of 24 to 42 weeks. Four cities including Tianjin, Shenyang, Changsha and Shenzhen were recruited to collect preterm babies with gestational age of 32 weeks and below. Naturally conceived singleton live births with gestational age of 24 to 42 weeks were included, and those infants who were not healthy or whose mothers had high health risk were excluded. Gestational age was jointly determined based on the mother's last menstrual period and the results of ultrasound examination in the first three months of pregnancy. Sample size was comprehensively estimated according to the statistical accuracy requirement of establishing growth standards and the actual number of newborn infants at different gestational ages. Full-term babies were sampled by cluster sampling, and the sample size was evenly distributed to each quarter, and the babies were randomly selected in each quarter. All eligible preterm babies within selected hospitals were included in this survey. Before establishing growth standards, sensitivity analysis, normality test, skewness and kurtosis analysis, sample weighting analysis and distribution transformation analysis were assessed for birth weight, length and head circumference for male and female newborn infants. The Generalized Additive Model for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) was employed to establish percentile and standard deviation score reference values and growth curves of birth weight, length and head circumference for male and female newborn infants with gestational age of 24 to 42 weeks. Results: A total of 24,375 singleton live births with gestational age of 24 to 42 weeks were investigated in 69 hospitals in 13 cities, including 12,264 preterm neonates and 12,111 full-term neonates. In the majority of gestational age groups, birth weight, length and head circumference showed significant non-normal distribution. Birth weight presented right skewness and leptokurtosis, and birth length and head circumference presented left skewness and leptokurtosis. Birth weight used the GAMLSS model with BCT distribution transformation and cubic spline smoothing function and birth length and head circumference used the GAMLSS model with BCPE distribution transformation and cubic spline smoothing function. All the GAMLSS models for birth weight, length and head circumference did not have to be weighted. The growth reference values and growth curves of birth weight, body length and head circumference were obtained for male and female newborn infants with gestational age of 24 to 42 weeks. Conclusion: Based on a large sample of cross-sectional data from a well-designed national survey, standardized reference values and growth curves of birth weight, length and head circumference were established for male and female newborn infants with gestational ages of 24 to 42 weeks, which was useful for growth and nutrition evaluation of newborn infants at birth and early growth monitoring of preterm infants.