Soil salinity is a major abiotic stress inhibiting plant growth, development, and productivity, especially in case of crop. Wheat is an important cereal crop affected by high salinity. A better understanding of the physiological mechanisms underlying salt tolerance will facilitate efforts to improve crop performance under salinity. This study used two general wheat varieties as experimental materials to explore the growth physiological response and sensitivity difference of different cultivated wheat types to salt stress and their salt tolerance. Jimai 22 is salt-tolerant and Henong 6425 is salt-sensitive. In a hydroponic experiment, the effects of different concentrations (0, 50, 100, and 200 mmol/L) of NaCl stress on both Jimai 22 and Henong 6425 seedlings were investigated. The seedlings growth, salt tolerance index, main ion content, physiological and biochemical index, and chloroplast fluorescence parameters were compared. The results showed that NaCl stress inhibited the growth of aboveground and underground parts of wheat seedlings in a concentration dependent manner. The higher the concentration of NaCl was, the greater the toxicity on wheat seedlings would become. And the inhibition degree on Jimai 22 seedlings was smaller than that on Henong 6425 seedlings. In terms of physiological response, the Na⁺ contents in both Jimai 22 and Henong 6425 were increased with the increase of NaCl concentration, while the contents of both K⁺ and Ca²⁺ exhibited opposite trend of changing. The salt tolerance variety Jimai 22 had higher both K⁺/Na⁺ and Ca²⁺/Na⁺ before and after NaCl stress than those on salt sensitive Henong 6425. NaCl stress damaged the photosystem II of both Jimai 22 and Henong 6425 leaves. The concrete manifestation of damage effect was the decrease of chloroplast fluorescence parameters containing Fv/Fm, Fv/Fo, qP and YⅡ under different NaCl concentration. And the lowered range of these parameters in Jimai 22 induced by NaCl stress was lower than that in Henong 6425. In terms of oxidative stress and antioxidant system, the reactive oxygen species (ROS) level was increased with NaCl concentration stress increased. And the activities of peroxidase (POD) and catalase (CAT) were also changed. In 12 d after NaCl treatment, the POD activity was decreased firstly and then increased, while CAT activity was increased firstly and then decreased. The activities of both POD and CAT induced by NaCl stress in Jimai 22 were higher than those in Henong 6425. In the early stage of NaCl stress, the POD activity was temporally suppressed and the rising amplitude of POD activity was very large subsequently. The CAT activities induced by NaCl stress in Jimai 22 were higher than those in Henong 6425. In later days of NaCl stress, Jimai 22 had stronger tolerance to high NaCl concentration and inhibition of antioxidant system induced by long term NaCl stress. The rising range of antioxidant enzyme was consistent with lower ROS and lower malondialdehyde (MDA) which represents the degree of membrane damage in Jimai 22 under NaCl stress. The MDA content of salt tolerant Jimai 22 roots reached the peak after 200 mmol/L NaCl stress for 1 d. While the MDA content of salt sensitive Henong 6425 roots reached the peak after 150 mmol/L NaCl stress for 1 d. Overall, these results suggested that salt tolerant Jimai 22 had higher salt tolerance. Under NaCl stress, Jimai 22 can not only alleviate the damage of both active oxygen and osmotic stress due to the increasing activities of both POD and CAT, but also alleviate the ion stress by maintaining higher level of both K⁺/Na⁺ and Ca²⁺/Na⁺ after different concentrations of NaCl stress. Results from this study could be helpful for further understanding the physiological mechanism of severe NaCl stress in crop, and may be useful for elucidating the salt-tolerant mechanism of different cultivated crop types.