Rare earths are the most critical resources with great reserve in China.Rare earth containing luminescent materials have found wide applications in a few aspects,and have important potential applications in the aspect of exploitation of new energy resources and biomedical science. The Luminescent Mechanism of rare earth luminescent materials is given,the application in energy saving lamp,white LED and PDP display of the materials is summarized and the prospective on the potential applications on upconversion luminescence, biolabel and solar cells is also presented.