Rosa roxburghii Tratt. is a famous Chinese traditional medicine with long history, here we characterized the whole chloroplast (cp) genome sequence of R. roxburghii by Illumina pair-end sequencing. The complete cp genome was 156,749 bp in length, containing a large single copy (LSC) region of 85,862 bp and a small single copy (SSC) region of 18,791 bp, which were separated by a pair of 26,053 bp inverted repeat regions (IRs). The genome contained 139 genes, including 88 protein-coding genes (82 PCG species), 39 tRNA genes (32 tRNA species), and eight ribosomal RNA genes (four rRNA species). Most of the gene species occur as a single copy, while 17 gene species occur in double copies. The overall AT content of R. roxburghii cp genome is 62.8%, while the corresponding values of the LSC, SSC, and IR regions are 64.8, 68.7, and 57.4%, respectively. Further, phylogenetic analysis suggested that R. roxburghii is closely related to R. odorata var. gigantea.