Rice （Oryza sativa L.） is one of the most important food crops in the world， low temperature destabilizes the growth and development of rice， and causes lower yield or harvestless in worse cases， has becoming one of the major environmental stresses that decrease rice yield and quality. The use of agricultural protection technologies to reduce cold damage were not only time-consuming and laborious， but also ineffective. Therefore， the cultivation of rice varieties showing cold tolerance in practice is the optimal way to solve this problem. In breeding of cold-tolerant varieties， precise identification and evaluation of cold tolerance rice in conjugation with the exploitation and utilization of important cold-tolerant genes become of significance. In recent years，several cold tolerant QTLs or genes had been identified by map-based cloning， GWAS and QTL analysis，and their functional mechanisms have been investigated. This article reviews the cold resistance of rice， from the aspects of identification methods and periods， evaluation systems and the molecular research basis， and suggested that different evaluation systems should be used to evaluate the cold tolerance of rice at different growth stages. At the same time， it is proposed to pyramid important cold tolerance genes/QTLs in excellent rice germplasm resources for further innovative utilization， which could provide reference for exploring the mechanism of cold tolerance and breeding new varieties of cold tolerance in rice.