Abstract: Advance Care Planning (ACP) aims to help patients establish decisions about future care that take effect when they lose capacity of expressing themselves. Although the attention is significantly increasing, the development of ACP in China is still in early stage. Current status of research and development at home and abroad were reviewed in this article in order to explain the legislation, social concern, progress on practice and the implementation of ACP, including grasping the key time points, optimizing the process of ACP. Evidence for the benefit of ACP for patients is increasing, which suggests that it can facilitate the delivery of care more in keeping with patient wishes and increase patient and family satisfaction with care. More national experimental studies in different settings are needed to benefit the patients diagnosed with life threatening disease and their family members.