Abstract: As an important component of China’s coal industry, surface coal mines have the advantages of large production capacity, low mining costs, and great safety conditions. In recent years, surface coal mines in China have achieved a leapfrog development in construction scale, total production, mining technology, and technical equipment, which strongly guarantees the status of coal as the “ballast” for the safe and stable supply of national energy. Firstly, the development process of surface coal mines in China over the past 70 years after the founding of the People’s Republic of China was reviewed, which was divided into four stages: the initial recovery stage (1949−1979), the rapid development stage (1980−1999), the comprehensive development stage (2000−2020), and the intelligent primary development (after 2021). A systematic summary was made for the outstanding achievements made in the production and quantity scale, mining theory and technology, mining technology and equipment, and resource development and environmental protection in each stage. Then, four main problems faced by the development of surface coal mines at the current stage were discussed, including uneven development layout, bottlenecks in sustainable development, key technological problems that need to be deeply researched, and the shortage of talents and imperfect cultivation mechanism. Finally, it was proposed to construct a high-quality development architecture system for surface coal mines with the overall goal of “safe, efficient, green, low carbon and intelligent” in the whole chain, whole cycle and whole elements. Its connotative features include theoretical basis: six academic ideas, i.e. time-dependent slope theory, mining disturbance coefficient theory, green mining theory, ecological mining theory, zero carbon and carbon negative mining theory, and intelligent mining theory; core support: five technical systems, i.e. disaster monitoring and prevention and control, collaborative support in complex conditions, ecological source damage reduction mining, energy conservation, pollution reduction and clean utilization, and digital-automatic-intelligent construction; key breakthroughs: 30 key technologies, i.e. dynamic reconstruction of transparent geological models, accurate prediction of slope creep and slide, deep and large-hole low-disturbance control blasting, advanced detection and disposal of goaf, and dust suppression, spontaneous combustion prevention and control, and so on; construction tasks: “ten transformable type” surface mines with the evolution of design concepts, standardization of safety guarantees, large-scale construction, comprehensive production processes, intelligent mining equipment, localization of core manufacturing, ecological greening of mining areas, clean utilization of coal, scientific organization and management, and internationalization of talent teams. At the same time, the realization path of high-quality development of surface coal mines based on planning guidance, driven by scientific and technological innovation, and guaranteed by talent cultivation was provided. Ultimately, it provides guidance to promote the sustainable, healthy, and high-quality development of surface coal mines in China.