Abstract: In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China has seen the rapid development of plantations, which not only top the world in area, but also makes significant contribution to the growth of forestry economy by producing wood and other products. In the new era in which global climate change, national ecological civilization development, beautiful China construction, forest city construction and rural revitalization strategy are rising as main issues, the plantation will bring on new development opportunities to increase forest carbon sink, build a better ecological environment, provide high-quality ecological products, optimize urban green space and build beautiful villages. Based on the review of the achievements of plantation development in China and with an eye to the current problems including low volume per unit area, the shortage of wood and ecological products and the limited supply of land for afforestation in the future, this paper summarizes the transition of development direction of the plantation in reference to domestic and foreign forestry development research and practical experiences, i.e., from timber-oriented operation to sustainable multi-functional management, from large-scale low-quality and low-efficiency pure forest establishment to close-to-nature silviculture, from more focused on quantity than quality to equal attention to quality and quantity, and from static and subjective post facto management to dynamic and intelligent real-time management.