The epidemiologic evidence on the role of dietary consumption on the risk of bladder cancer in the Chinese population is limited. We investigated the role of dietary consumption and diet diversity on the risk of developing bladder cancer within a Chinese population. A case-control study of 487 cases and 469 controls was conducted in four hospitals in China. A food frequency questionnaire was used to gather information on the consumption of 35 food items. Unconditional logistic regression models were used to derive odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95 % confidence intervals (95 % CI) for the relationship between dietary factors, dietary diversity scores, and bladder cancer. The ORs of bladder cancer for red meat (OR = 1.8, 95 % CI:1.1-3.0;p (trend) = 0.01), organ meat (OR = 1.6, 95 % CI:0.9-2.9;p (trend) = 0.04), leafy vegetables (OR = 2.9, 95 % CI:1.6-5.4;p (trend) = 0.003), bulb vegetables (OR = 2.3, 95 % CI:1.3-4.0;p (trend) = 0.003), and preserved vegetables (OR = 2.3, 95 % CI:1.2-4.2;p (trend) = 0.02) were significantly increased when comparing the highest to lowest level of consumption. The ORs for white fresh fish (OR = 0.5, 95 % CI:0.3-0.9;p (trend) = 0.004), citrus fruits (OR = 0.4, 95 % CI:0.3-0.8;p (trend) = 0.007), stone fruits (OR = 0.4, 95 % CI:0.2-0.6;p (trend) < 0.001), vine fruits (OR = 0.5, 95 % CI:0.2-1.0;p (trend) = 0.02), flower vegetables (OR = 0.3, 95 % CI:0.2-0.6;p (trend) < 0.001), potatoes (OR = 0.4, 95 % CI:0.2-0.9;p (trend) = 0.005), or dairy products (OR = 0.4, 95 % CI:0.3-0.7;p (trend) < 0.001) were significantly decreased when comparing the highest to lowest level of consumption. Subjects with the highest total diet diversity (OR = 0.4, 95 % CI:0.2-1.1;p (trend) = 0.02) and fruit diversity (OR = 0.1, 95 % CI:0.0-0.3;p (trend) < 0.001) had reduced ORs of and compared to subjects with the lowest diversity. Our results indicate that a diet with higher total diet diversity and in particular fruit diversity may reduce the risk of bladder cancer.