Objective To find out the serotype distribution, molecular subtyping and drug resistance patterns of Salmonella isolates from marketed meat products in Shanghai. Methods A sentinel supermarket or market near an intensive community from each of 16 administrative regions in Shanghai were randomly selected, in which livestock and poultry meat products were collected regularly from January to August in 2016. Salmonella isolation and serotyping, antibiotic susceptibility testing, as well as molecular subtyping were conducted according to the foodborne disease surveillance monitoring program of the China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment. Results A total of 158 Salmonella strains were isolated from 606 commercially available meat products including pork, chicken, duck, beef, mutton and goose. Total positive rate was 26.1%(158/606), separation rates for livestock and poultry were 52.5%(83/158) and 47.5%(75/158) respectively. Salmonella enteritis, Salmonella typhimurium, Salmonella derby, Salmonella rissen and Salmonella indiana were the top 5 Salmonella serovars for meat products in Shanghai, but serovar type distributions in livestock and poultry were significantly different (P<0.05). Sulfisoxazole had the highest drug resistance rate for 158 Salmonella strains(79.7%,126/158), followed by streptomycin, nalidixic acid, ampicillin, tetracycline and chloramphenicol (38.0%～77.8%). Moreover, 123 strains (77.8%) were multi-drug resistant (MDR) strains. Drug resistance rates of gentamicin, streptomycin, sulfonamides, trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole, chloramphenicol, tetracycline and ceftiofur, ceftriaxone and nalidixic acid were significant different in Salmonella strains from pigs and chicken(P<0.05). Six antibiotics exceeded the detection limits in almost half of the Salmonella strains. Salmonella enteritis strains had 15 PFGE patterns, in which type 1 and type 3 were predominant clones. Salmonella typhimurium strains had 23 significant different PFGE patterns, which showed genetic polymorphism features. Conclusion Salmonella contamination in retail meat and poultry is the main reason which leads to high Salmonella positive rate in Shanghai, the multidrug-resistant of Salmonella in meat products is serious and must be paid attention to. Salmonella rissen from pigs and Salmonella give from chicken are the newly imported animal originated Salmonella serovars.