This study investigated attitudes toward physical activity (ATPA) among male and female students in three types of secondary schools in Beijing, China. Physical activity was viewed as a nine-dimensional social phenomenon in this study. The data were obtained by administering a modified version of Kenyon's Attitude Toward Physical Activity Scale and a general information inventory to 390 students randomly selected from three schools: a general school, a key school and a spare-time sport school. The MANOVA of the data revealed that Chinese students had favorable attitudes toward most of the nine dimensions of physical activity. In comparison, males and females evaluated seven of the nine types of physical activity differently. Students from different schools differed in their attitudes toward all of the nine forms of physical activity.