Canadian oil sands bitumen contains no naphtha, about 44% gas oils, and 56% vacuum bottoms, as well as many "nasty" materials such as sulfur, nitrogen, aromatics, carbon residue, metals, and asphaltenes. Therefore, the technologies to upgrade bitumen are unique. The upgraded product, synthetic crude oil (SCO), contains less naphtha, more middle distillates and gas oils than conventional crude oil, and no bottoms. SCO contains very low sulfur but relatively high aromatics; therefore, it has a low diesel cetane number and jet fuel smoke point. Improving SCO quality is an ongoing challenge. This paper reviews the properties of bitumen, research on bitumen upgrading, the quality of upgraded products, and implications of processing bitumen products in conventional oil refineries.