Gas hydrate, also called “fire ice”, is cage compound generated by hydrocarbon gas such as methane mixed with water in low temperatures and high pressures, which is expected to be the most important alternative energy after shale gas, tight gas, coal bed methane and oil sands. Gas hydrate in the seabed distributes widely in the depth of 300–3 000 m deep water in the arctic tundra or coastal shelf, of which about 95 % is stored in the deep sea region. It has been preliminarily estimated that the amount of gas hydrate is twice larger than that of the global carbon-containing compounds. Great attention has been attracted on disorder decomposition of weakly consolidated gas hydrate in shallow-layer in deep water, which can cause potential engineering geological hazard and the greenhouse effect. Safe and efficient development and environmental risks are equally important for developing the gas hydrate, so the research field has been the forefront of technological innovation around the world. This paper reviews the research progress of natural gas hydrate exploration and trial mining technology. On this basis, some ideas of natural gas hydrate exploration and development technology are described in terms of the potential target sea area in China and the relevant characteristics of gas hydrate samples already acquired.