Cold tolerance of rice is an important research target for rice breeding in northeast China and high altitude region in Southwest China, Japan and Korea etc. A lot of researches on cold tolerance of rice have been conducted and methods of characterization and evaluation of cold tolerance in rice have almost been accepted,but there is not a national standard method for characterization and evaluation of cold tolerance in China.This paper describes the methods of characterization and evaluation on cold tolerance, index and grading standard of cold tolerance of rice used in the world,in order to provide the basis for characterization of rice germplasm and rice breeding, and standard methods of characterization and evaluation of cold tolerance in rice.