Rural tourism is a form of tourism relying on rural environment, with rural unique natural scene and cultural characteristics (production pattern, life style, folk customs, and rural culture) as object, and integrating sightseeing, vacation, recreation and shopping. Rural tourism provides recreation products for urban residents, promotes national and local economy, promotes rural employment, keeps traditional culture, improves rural ecological environment, and promotes urban and rural exchange. From concept and characteristics of rural tourism, this paper made a brief overview of development background, realistic significance, influence factors, development mode, and existing problems, in the hope of providing favorable references for grasping development situation of rural tourism in China.