The present paper focused on the research advances in utilizing constructed wetland technology to treat the wastewater from household， livestock and poultry farms， and various industries such as rubber， petroleum， paper， tannery， and printing and dyeing. Constructed wetlands， one of the resources used in treatment of wastewaters， have been introduced in the seventies of the 20th century. An attempt has been performed in order to review the developments in constructed wetland technologies and a comparison of various systems has been presented. Constructed wetland could be classified into three types according to direction of water flowing， viz.， surface flow wetland （FWS）， subsurface flow wetland (SSF) and vertical flow wetland (VFW). It has advantages of strong capacity for removing nitrogen and phosphorous， convenient operation and maintenance， low operating cost and good adaptability， and is widely used to treat the wastewater from household， livestock and poultry farms and various industries. The data indicated that constructed wetland efficiently removes organic matter， nitrogen and phosphorous from the wastewater. The mechanism of removal of nutrients and organic matter from wastewater in constructed wetland was confirmed to be due to its biological (microorganism and absorption by plant roots)， physical and chemical properties. It has been observed that the status of constructed wetland technology was relatively poor in China. Some problems such as coverage of large land area， nonsystematic processing technology， non-standard management tactics， etc.， exist in Chinese constructed wetland. In order to enhance the application and performance of constructed wetland，it should be improved through adopting the new technologies and the results of scientific researches.