With the implementation of maritime power strategy in China, the marine infrastructure engineering construction is unprecedented in scale, and the durability of concrete materials in the coastal environment has gradually attracted people's attention. Chloride ingress is the main factor to cause the deterioration of the durability of reinforced concrete structures in marine environment. Therefore, the experimental research on chloride ion corrosion of concrete in coastal environment has attracted wide attention. The real sea exposure test has some disadvantages, such as large regional impact, poor popularization, long test period and complex influencing factors, which could not provide sufficient data basis for developing prediction model of service life. However, the shortcomings of the real sea exposure test can be effectively made up by the indoor simulation accelerated test. The similarity between the real sea exposure test and the indoor simulation test is used to establish prediction model of service life for marine structures. Further, the indoor simulation test results could be applied to accurately predict the service life of building structure in the field. There have been many researches on the similarity of chloride corrosion resistance between the real sea exposure test and the indoor simulation accelerated test, and some achievements have been achieved. On the one hand, the corresponding similarity model has been established, and then the corrosion law of chloride ion in concrete under the real sea exposure environment and artificial simulation environment has been analyzed and studied theoretically, which lays a certain theoretical foundation for the establishment of the life prediction model. On the other hand, the testing equipment has already been continuously developed and upgraded, which provides a certain technical support for obtaining more accurate and reliable test data. For the tidal environment, some parameters including convective zone depth, surface chloride ion concentration, diffusion coefficient, and peak chloride ion concentration are usually regarded as the key factors for the prediction model of service life, which are considered to analyze the ingress behavior of chloride ions. From the perspective of the real sea exposure test and the indoor simulation test, the research progress of the resistance to chloride corrosion within concrete exposed to marine tidal zone has been summarized. Based on the similarity theory, the similarity of chloride penetration into concrete is analyzed in depth, and the further discussion and prospect are presented. © 2021, Materials Review Magazine. All right reserved.