The Ailaoshan tectonic zone is the most significant lineament in the eastern Tibet (Southeast Asia), which separates the Yangtze-South China and the Indochina blocks. Information on multi-stage complex tectonic evolution is preserved in the rocks in the tectonic zone. Late Archean-Neoproterozoic high grade metamorphic rock series, Cenozoic tectono-magmatic assemblages (shearing deformation structures), Late Permian-Early Triassic Jinping-Song Da rifting rock sequences and Early Carboniferous-Early Triassic Ailaoshan tectonic mélange were well developed from east to west along the Ailaoshan tectonic zone. On the whole, it has experienced three important tectonic stages, i.e. Pre-Tethys, Tethys and Cenozoic intracontinental stages.