Principal features of the Chinese Reference Ionosphere(CRI) are described in brief with an emphasis on its difference from the IRI. The CRI improvements include a model for the F 2 -layer prediction for use in the Asia-Oceania Region(known as the AOR mapping) replacing the CCIR or URSI coefficients in the IRI-90, a model of the F 1 -layer occurrence for use in China removing the restriction of the F 1 -layer occurrence in winter, and a newE -layer peak height hmE=115 km instead of 105 km in the IRI-90.