A Chinese air force plane carrying Shen Liangliang's body arrived at Longjia Airport in Changchun, Jilin Province, where he served in the army for 11 years, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
The body was brought from Bamako, capital of Mali.
The 29-year-old sergeant first class was killed in a terrorist attack on the night of May 31 in the northern Malian town of Gao, when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated at a United Nations camp.