In November, 2015, the Global Geopark became a new UNESCO designation, at the same time, the Statutes of International Geoscience and Geoparks Programme and the Operational Guidelines for UNESCO Global Geoparks (UGGp) were issued, providing the clear criteria and requirements for the management, organizational structure, and application, evaluation/revalidation procedures and activities of UGGp. China is one of initiative countries for the Global Geoparks Network, with the largest number of UGGps in a single country. Recent practice shows that some UGGps and local governments have several discrepant understandings of the philosophy and criteria of UGGp, resulting in unwanted situation. Regarding the present situation and existing problems in China, this paper analyzes and interprets the UGGp’s criteria one by one, with emphasis on the issues of territory completeness, boundary, overlap of different designation sites, providing the helpful understandings for the healthy development of UGGps in China.