Career
Beginning his professional football career with Beijing Guoan he would gradually establish himself within their team during his time with them, however it was only once he had a short loan period with lower league German SV Waldhof Mannheim in 1998 did he show his potential as a striker. This saw Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt interested in him and were willing to make a transfer of 1,000,000 DEM for his services. Being the first Chinese football player to play in the Bundesliga he would personally thrive within the league and score eight goals to helped the team to avoid relegation to 2.
Bundesliga.
While his time with Frankfurt was viewed as a success when new manager Felix Magath came in during the 2000-2001 season Yang Chen did lose favour within the team and would have to fight back for his position before deciding to move to 2. Once Zhu Guanghu left to take over the Chinese national team and Chi Shangbin came in to replace him Yang Chen and several other players immediately took a disliking to him. Throughout the 2005 league season there were numerous accusations between the management and the players.
The club would decide to let the management go and several players including Yang Chen were sold official
He would go on to join Xiamen Lanshi until they disbanded in 2007 and he decided to retire. In 2011, Jiangsu Sainty appoint Yang as an assistant coach.
He is the Chinese player to have come closest to scoring in the World Cup when his volley ricocheted off the post in the 3–0 loss to Turkey in group stage. International goals Scores and results list China"s goal tally first.