Living Chamaecyparis Spach only includes five species sporadically distributing in western and eastern North American, Japan and Taiwan. The reasons for the formation of modern regional distribution of Chamaecyparis have always attracted attention from botanists. Previous study analyzed the evolution of modern regional distribution of Chamaecyparis using modern molecular biology methods or fossil records, about which there is no consensus. In this paper, we revisited the origin and biogeographic history of Chamaecyparis based on detailed evaluation of the fossil evidence and the results of phylogenetic method. Fossil evidence indicates that Chamaecyparis had more species in the past geological period and was widely distributed in the mid to high latitudinal regions of the Northern Hemisphere since the early Cretaceous. We speculate from fossil records that the genus Chamaecyparis probably originated in Eastn Asia during the Early Cretaceous and spread to western North America via the Bering Land Bridge during the Late Cretaceous, and then to the high latitudinal region of North America. Absence of fossil record in eastern North America indicates that current Chamaecyparis in eastern North America might migrate from Europe or the high latitudinal region of North America. The European Chamaecyparis probably originated from the North America via North Atlantic Land Bridges or East Asia during the Oligocene. Local extinction of Chamaecyparis from Europe, western and central Asia and central North America might be a result of successive global climatic cooling in the Neogene and Quaternary glaciation. During the Neogene, Eastern Asia Chamaecyparis spread southwards to Japan and Taiwan and disappeared in the Asian continent. Finally, the genus Chamaecyparis limitedly occurred in western and eastern North American, Japan and Taiwan.