Progresses and directions of HTS applications world wide are reviewed in this paper, especially with respects to:transmission cables, transformers, fault current limiters(FCL), current leads, motors, flywheel power storage systems, magnetic resonance imagine (MRI), and magnetic levitation trains (Maglev). Prepared and developed in our country are materials for power cables, current leads, FCL, MRI, and Maglev. Accordingly, we should seize the opportunities and face the challenges to optimize the processing of superconducting tapes and bulk materials, to increase their homogeneity, mechanical properties and quantities, to decrease their costs and ac losses, in order to meet the coming new age of HTS commercialization.