Irrational irrigation patterns of paddy field in China have caused severe water resource squander and low water use efficiencies, aggravated the shortage and pollution of water resources. Rice cropping in China, accounted for approximately 50% of total national water consumption. Therefore, to reduce water consumption and improve China’s rice water use efficiency will help ease China’s water shortage and water pollution. At present, there are four major water-saving irrigation technologies in China, including “shallowwetsun” irrigation, intermittent submerged irrigation, controlled irrigation, and rainfall collection. This paper systematically summarized the four water-saving irrigation technologies, illuminated water-saving and yield-increasing mechanisms of these technologies, and analyzed the effect of watersaving irrigation technologies on rice growth and development and the paddy ecological environment. However, these four water-saving irrigation techniques have some limitations: there are no technologies (measures) of cultivation and high-tech matching with them; water-saving effects are not very ideal; long-term applications of some efficient water-saving technology may reduce soil fertility. Consequently, to find out new water-saving irrigation techniques will become an inevitable choice for rice water-saving technology development in the future.