Abstract: Yellow Sea cold water mass is a prominent and significant marine phenomenon in the shallow sea of China’s continental shelf, playing a crucial role in deep-sea fisheries and aquaculture. Low temperature is the main characteristic of Yellow Sea cold water mass. The change of the spatial variations and the properties of temperature and salinity of the low-temperature center are great importance for further understanding the marine environmental variability in this region. Based on the historical observation data and research findings, this paper provides a comprehensive review of the seasonal variation characteristics; with a particular focus on the interannual variation of the low-temperature center in the Yellow Sea cold water mass. The main characteristics of the interannual variation are as follows: the low-temperature center in the northern Yellow Sea exhibits a relatively small range of variation, with a slight northward shift overall; the two low-temperature centers in the southern Yellow Sea show large variations, with the western center shifting westward and the eastern center shifting southward; the temperature of the low-temperature center in the northern Yellow Sea and the western parts of southern Yellow Sea has been increasing, while the temperature of the eastern low-temperature center has been decreasing; the salinity of the northern Yellow Sea cold water mass has shown a slight decreasing trend, while the salinity of the southern Yellow Sea cold water mass shows a significant decreasing trend is observed. Finally, by addressing the existing controversies and limitations in current research, the necessity of further investigating the variation characteristics of the low-temperature center is emphasized, leading to the future prospect for the Yellow Sea cold water mass research. This paper provides a reference for the systematic study of the variation law of the Yellow Sea cold water mass, gaining the in-depth understanding and prediction of the marine environment change in the cold water mass region.