Eumeninae or potter wasps are the largest subfamily of the Vespidae with 3773 valid species in 205 genera (Carpenter 1986; Zhou et al. 2011; Tan et al. 2015, 2018a; Pannure et al. 2016; Carpenter unpubl.). Eumeninae have a cosmopolitan distribution and are morphologically very diverse. The generic classification of Eumeninae is chaotic and has a troubled taxonomic history. The extreme splitting haphazardly pursued during much of the 20th century has contributed much to this current state (Hermes et al. 2014). Clearly, the situation with the generic classification will have to be rationalized by future synonymy of numerous taxa after their phylogeny is better known (Carpenter and Cumming 1985; Carpenter and Garcete-Barrett 2003; Hermes et al. 2014). The need for taxonomic work on Eumeninae is underlined by the lack of adequate and well-illustrated keys, both to genera and to species (Pannure et al. 2016). The few generic keys available concern one region or a country: Yamane (1990) revised the Japanese fauna of Eumeninae with a key to 18 genera, Carpenter and Garcete-Barrett (2003) presented a key to the genera of Neotropical Eumeninae and Pannure et al. (2016) included a key to the 31 eumenine genera known from South India. We present the first illustrated key to genera of Eumeninae from a major area encompassing two faunal regions and the first complete key to genera of Chinese Eumeninae. It is a major step to facilitate the classification of Chinese Eumeninae. Nevertheless, the status of several genera remains problematical; only a combined approach using molecular, biological, and morphological data will make it possible to decide their taxonomic position.