Abstract: Chloroplast transformation, an alternative way to incorporate foreign genes into plant genome, has a number of advantages: higher transgene expression level; sitespecific introduction of foreign genes which leads to the absence of gene silencing and position effect; the ability to express polycistronic messages from a single promoter; uniparental inheritance that prevents pollen transmission of foreign DNA; provision of more favorable environments for cer tain biochemical reactions and for accumulating large amounts of gene products. It has become a useful tool in many fields. In this paper the characteristics, recent advances and application of chloroplast transformation are reviewed.