Abstract: Characteristic small towns are the innovation platform and important carriers of China's economic transformation. On the basis of the academic literature review analysis with Vosviewer and CiteSpace, this paper summarizes the general situation of characteristic small towns, including the scholars, institutions, literature sources, research institutions and fund types. Combined with the policy analysis, research hotspots and changes have been summarized. This paper mainly revealed the construction model of characteristic small towns in Zhejiang Province, clarifying the similarities and differences between characteristic small towns and small towns in terms of development characteristics, bearing function, industrial selection, and spatial morphology, and therefore proposed development advice.