Targeted observing for typhoons would be helpful in both the scientific endeavor and practical significance to making up the lack of conventional observations and improving numerical prediction skills. Relevant developments of two clusters of theoretical methods were summarized， and the advantages as well as the disadvantages were compared. The methods involving adjoint model can better describe the influence of nonlinear errors， while the methods based on ensembles save more computing resources. The applications of some new observation instruments and platforms which represent the current most advanced observation technology to the field campaigns for typhoons landing in China were overviewed. Then the feasibility of targeted observing for typhoon was summarized from two perspectives of individual case and multiple individual cases. Moreover， it is found that factors including tangent linearity hypothesis， model defects， selected metrics， and ensemble numbers may lead to significant differences in locating the sensitivity areas of typhoons， which should not be neglected. Future research directions should highlight the applications of targeted observing to typhoon intensity， the further developments of nonlinear methods and numerical models， and the implement schemes of typhoon targeted observing that is suitable for the meteorological operations in China.