Litchi and longan are famous southern subtropical fruits in China.The advances on origin and distribution,collection and conservation,classification and identification of litchi and longan germplasm resources in China were reviewed in this paper.The classification of litchi and longan is divided into three stages: classification based on morphological traits,classification by using isozyme analysis and DNA markers.The expression of morphological traits is affected by environmental conditions;the number of loci that isozyme analysis can examine is small.The limitations of classification based on morphological traits and isozyme analysis are then overcome by the utilization of molecular markers.At present,most new litchi and longan varieties are selected from seedlings or bud mutation.In order to achieve the goal of improving fruit quality and agronomic characteristics,it is suggested that additional studies of genetic diversity on litchi and longan germplasm could be carried out,and marker assisted selection(MAS) could be employed to improve litchi and longan's cross breeding efficiency.