Objective To investigate the pain burden and pain-related health seeking behaviors in adult patients during hospitalization in the First Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University, so as to improve the diagnosis and treatment of pain and improve patient satisfaction. Methods A short-term cross-sectional questionnaire survey (72 h) was carried out to investigate the adult patients during hospitalization from July 22^nd to July 24^th, 2013 in our hospital. Results The effective questionnaire response rate was 84%(2 106/2 515). The incidence of pain was 46.96% (989/2 106) in this research. It was found that 68.24%(651/954) of surgical patients having a pain duration less than 1 month. The incidences of moderate-severe pain of surgical patients was 34.80%(332/954) at rest pre-operatively and 28.83%(275/954) post-operatively. We found that 79.91% (1 683/2 106) of patients thought the pain was caused by disease, and 81.10% (764/942) of the patients thought the treatment for pain by the doctors was effective. Age and education level were found to be the factors influencing the pain burden of patients(P<0.05). Conclusion Pain burden is common among adult patients during hospitalization. The incidence of surgical pain is high, with acute and mild pain being the most. The patients have a high degree of awareness of pain and a high satisfactory rate with pain control; however, some pain is still not well controlled. Medical staffs should receive systematic and scientific training and give individual analgesic measures, so as to reduce the prevalence of pain and further improve patient satisfaction.