The development of electroplating technology for magnesium alloy substrates was reviewed.The emphases were placed on the introduction of the pretreatment especially the transition layer coating technologies,electroplating bath systems and plating methods for electroplating on magnesium alloys.There exist two systems of electroplating bath in the present time,i.e.aqueous plating bath system and nonaqueous plating bath system.For the non-aqueous plating bath system,ionic liquid plating bath,organic solvent plating bath and molten salt plating bath are introduced.The development direction of technologies for electroplating on magnesium alloys substrates is proposed as well.