evaluating government openness is important in monitoring government performance and promoting government transparency. therefore, it is necessary to develop an evaluation system for information openness of local governments. in order to select evaluation indicators, we conducted a content analysis on current evaluation systems constructed by researchers and local governments and the materials of a case study on a local government. this evaluation system is composed of 5 first-tier indicators, 30 second-tier indicators and 69 third-tier indicators. then delphi method and analytic hierarchy process (ahp) method are adopted to determine the weight of each indicator. at last, the practicability of the system is tested by an evaluation of the local government of tianjin binhai new area, which has been undergoing administrative reform and attempting to reinvent itself in the past 5 years.