Abstract: With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, river shorelines have been occupied and buried, and water consumption and pollutant discharge have increased dramatically, resulting in a significant deterioration of river morphology and ecosystem. To maintain the healthy life of rivers, ecological restoration of damaged rivers is widely concerned. This paper reviewed domestic and overseas research progress of river ecological restoration, including concept, development history, and main objectives. In addition, this paper also systematically examined the main characteristics of current river ecological restoration engineering technologies (sediment dredging, river morphology restoration, ecological water supply technology, etc.) and ecological technologies (aquatic biological treatment, biofilm, microbial restoration, land treatment technology, etc.). On this basis, this paper discussed the concept of near nature control of river ecological restoration. From the perspectives of the deficiencies of current ecological restoration theories and people's demands for better life, this paper provides some basic principles for river ecological restoration, including comprehensive management and multiple measures, combination of engineering measures and non-engineering measures, multi-objective coordination, and aesthetic engineering technology design of river ecological restoration.