To investigate the current practice of intraoperative ventilation management during non‑cardiothoracic surgery by Chinese anesthesiologists. Methods From August 2021 to September 2021, we developed an electronic questionnaire and distributed to Department of Anesthesiology of 81 tertiary general hospitals in China, in order to evaluate the application of low tidal volume (VT) ventilation, positive end‑expiratory pressure (PEEP) and alveolar recruitment maneuver (ARM) and the understanding of lung‑protective ventilation (LPV) strategy. The results were analyzed for descriptive statistics. Results A total of 57 domestic institutions participated in the survey, with a response rate of 70%, where 1 089 valid questionnaires were collected. Notably, 92.7% anesthesiologists routinely used low VT ventilation and 77.1% anesthesiologists routinely set PEEP during surgery, where 1‒5 cmH2O (1 cmH2O=0.098 kPa) was most commonly applied for PEEP. Furthermore, 84.6% anesthesiologists routinely performed ARM during surgery. Nearly most of the respondents (97.9%) considered that “LPV strategy” refers to the combined use of “low VT, PEEP, and ARM”. Also, 64.8% of the respondents routinely performed low VT, PEEP and ARM in combination. Conclusions There is heterogeneity in clinical practice of ventilation management in adult non‑cardiothoracic surgery among anesthesiologists in China, and there is a gap between the clinical practice and theoretical understanding of LPV strategy.