Abstract: Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) has become a national strategy in contemporary China. This paper reviews the existing literature in China in terms of the history, key concepts and major themes in major studies on YREB. Generally, the studies on YREB had three stages: initiation stage (1980-2000), stagnation stage (2001-2009) and revival stage (since 2010). The geographical scope and strategic positioning of the YREB changed in different stages. Recently, the YREB mainly functions to expand domestic demand, promote opening-up and narrow the regional gaps. It is found in this paper that the concept of economic belt is not clearly defined and there are at least two different understandings of economic belt: one focus on the scope of region and the other emphasizes the mode and strategy of regional development. The deep reason of these two interpretations of the economic belt is the duality of paradigms in Chinese academic sphere. While some scholars follow the logics of engineering, some others incline to the discourse of positivistic science. The disconnect between the science and engineering of studies of YREB leads to weak scientific foundation of the engineering-prone research and impractical policy implications of science-prone studies. Three major topics have also been identified among existing studies: empirical studies of regional development of the YREB, evaluation of the conditions and existing problems for policy making, policy research aiming to make specific strategies for YREB. Based on a overview of studies in these three topics, this paper points out that not many studies have examined the criterion and indexes of synergistic development and the cultivation and diffusion of innovation in the YREB.