Due to climate changes, human activities and excessive utilization, China is one of the countries with significant soil degradation and many problems need to be solved in recent decades. Obviously, the more detailed information were acquired in soil degradation processes, the better would be done in soil degradation assessments and soil conservation. Thus, various soil degradation chronosequences are needed to investigate how soil degradation change with time and the concomitant agricultural implications. To obtain reliable results, the establishment of soil degradation chronosequences must consist of two critical processes, i.e. quantitative identification of original soil uniformity between and within profiles of the chronosequence, and identification of the degraded soil ages with numerical or geochronometric dating methods and surface exposure (relative) dating methods. This study provided a methodology that can help improve our understanding of the constructing procedures of soil degradation chronosequences and such enhanced understanding may contribute to soil degradation studies, with a view to providing detailed references for correct construction of soil degradation chronosequences and better understanding the effects of the time factor on soil degradations.