The development of long-lifetime and high-performance thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) has been a very urgent task for China due to the need of high-power aero-engines and new-generation supersonic air craft. The failure caused by the penetration of CaO-MgO-Al2O3-SiO2 (CMAS) has been given more and more attention during recent years. This paper reviewed the latest experimental results on the failure mechanism and corrosion resistance of coatings deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) or electron beam physical vapor deposition (EBPVD) with the aim of fabricating the high-performance TBCs.