The paper reports the results of an empirical study on the Chinese search terms. Three research questions are depicted: (1) What are the characteristics of the access points used in the Chinese bibliographic database? (2) What are the characteristics of the search terms used in the Chinese bibliographic database? (3) How do the search terms match the terms within the database in terms of zero hit and/or the number of relevant items retrieved? Research methods include observation, in-depth interview, and pre- and post-questionnaires. Research results are then presented.