The development of distribution automation（DA） in China is summarized including the information integration by the IEC 61968 based enterprise service bus（ESB）; the well-developed and robust fault location， isolation and restoration program; wide application of the advanced communication technologies， such as Ethernet passive optical network（EPON）， general packet radio service（GPRS）， WiMax， etc; super-capacitor based back-up supplies for terminal units. The progress in the test of the distribution automation system（DAS） is described， which can evaluate the fault location， isolation and restoration property of a DAS by simulation of various fault scenarios. Three suggestions are given， namely， coordination between relay protection and DA， improvement of the capacity of distribution grids by DAS， and enhancement of the ability to handle the emergency situations by DAS.