Unlike typical oceans such as the wide and "clean" Atlantic, the Tethys has been showing an archipelagic pattern during all its evolutionary stages. Compared with the traditional, wedge-shaped and relatively "clean" ocean model, the archipelagic model is more suitable for the Tethys, especially the eastern Tethys. This paper demonstrates the eastern Tethys archipelagic system in terms of the subdivision, characteristics and evolutionary history of the Qinling-Qilian-Kunlun, South China and Xizang (Tibet)-Yunnan Regions of the eastern Eurasian Tethys.