The TBM equipment manufacturing and construction have been 50 years since 1964. It is of great importance for learning the stateoftheart and development direction of TBM to summary the development course and tendency of TBM equipment and its construction technologies. In this paper, key events for international TBM development are taken for examples; then the TBM development course in China is presented in terms of 4 phases; finally, the market demand, manufacturing environment, construction level and development direction of TBM are comprehensively analyzed; the tendency of TBM development is prospected and some suggestions are given.