In this paper, a hydrothermal synthetic route has been developed to prepare a class of rare-earth fluoride nanocrystals, which have shown gradual changes in growth modes with decreasing ionic radii and may serve as a model system for studying the underlying principle in the controlled growth of rare-earth nanocrystals. Furthermore, we demonstrate the functionalization of these nanocrystals by means of doping, which have shown visible-to-the-naked-eye green up-conversion emissions and may find application in biological labeling fields.