Geotechnical centrifuge is a large special equipment to study complex geotechnical engineering problems. As early as in the 1980s, the largest geotechnical centrifuge in china at that time with a total capacity of 300g-t and an effective capacity of 180g-t was built at Changjiang/Yangtze River Scientific Research Institute(CRSRI), which laid foundation for the development of centrifuge and centrifugal model test technology in china. The development history of geotechnical centrifuge at home and abroad is firstly summarized in this paper. The developing process of the first generation geotechnical centrifuge in CRSRI and its significance are introduced, and the main research work and achievements regarding the first generation centrifuge are reviewed. Moreover, the development and properties of the second generation geotechnical centrifuge of CRSRI are described in details, and the reliability of the test system is proved by centrifugal model tests completed recently.