Mr. Xue Zhang, who is over sixty years old, participated in the first surveying of Mount Everest. Photo by Xiao Lei.
In August 1952, a group of 15- or 16-year-old young people came to Nanjing from all over the country. Two years later, they left Nanjing to work across the country. On April 19, a group of men nearly sixty years old once again returned to Nanjing. These people shared a common identity: they were students of the 1952 graduating class of the former Nanjing Surveying and Mapping School. Over the span of sixty years—a full cycle of the Chinese zodiac—they transformed from naive teenagers into leaders in the national, and even global, surveying and mapping industry. The first widely recognized global height data for Mount Everest was produced by one of these students—Xue Zhang. By Xiao Lei, reporter at Yangtze Evening News.
After two years of study, they were deployed across the country at just 17 years old.
Mr. Jin Hongxin, former director of the Jiangsu Provincial Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, was also among these students. He recalled the situation 60 years ago to the reporter: “I was only 15 years old at the time. After graduating from junior high school, I passed an exam to enter this school. Back then, it was called the Surveying and Mapping School under the China Geological Work Planning Committee. The following year, it was renamed Nanjing Geological School, and in 2000, it merged into Southeast University. At that time, the country had just been liberated a few years prior, and large-scale infrastructure construction was underway. Surveyors were the pioneers of the construction industry—after all, everyone needed maps. But the country had not yet systematically trained professionals in geological surveying and mapping. We were the first batch, so after just two years of study, in 1954, our class was sent out to work all over the country. Most of us were not even 18 years old at the time—barely adults—and we were already deployed to the front lines of national construction.”
Speaking about his school experience, Mr. Lu Huxing, former assistant director of the Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources and recipient of the State Council Special Allowance, recounted a telling detail to the reporter: “There were ten classes in the entire grade—Classes 1 through 8 were for surveying majors, all male students. Classes 9 and 10 were drawing classes, roughly half male and half female. After the first semester, based on exam results, the top-performing students in the surveying classes were placed in Classes 1 to 6, while the rest went to Classes 7 and 8. But unlike schools today, the best teachers in the entire school were assigned to Classes 7 and 8 to help them catch up. The teachers back then were mostly high-ranking officers and professors left over from the Nationalist era. Although there were no textbooks, they taught extremely well. Our class studied for only two years, but the knowledge we gained benefited us for life, and is still relevant today.”
The first domestically measured Mount Everest height data came from this group of students.
Mount Everest is the world’s highest peak, known as the “Roof of the World.” Before China re-measured its height in 2005 and announced the figure of 8844.43 meters, the most authoritative height of Everest had long been 8848.13 meters. This data was produced in 1975 by Xue Zhang, a student of the surveying and mapping school.
Since graduating in 1954 until his retirement, Mr. Xue Zhang spent most of his life working with the First Geodetic Surveying and Mapping Brigade of the National Bureau of Surveying and Mapping.
“Before we announced the figure of 8848.13 meters, countries like Britain and India had published their own measurements of Everest’s height, but none recognized each other’s figures. In 1975, China carried out a new survey and scientific expedition of Everest. Three teams were involved: a mountaineering team, a surveying team, and a scientific research team. I was part of the surveying team. On May 27 of that year, the mountaineering team reached the summit of Everest and erected a red metal surveying target. Meanwhile, we surveyors had been stationed at a geodetic gravity point at an altitude of 7050 meters for nine days and nights. After three days of observation and calculation, we finally derived the height of Everest as 8848.13 meters and released it to the world. Soon afterward, this figure replaced foreign data and gained international recognition as the most authoritative measurement of Everest’s height,” Mr. Xue told the reporter.
When talking about the surveying methods at the time, Mr. Xue said that in those days, there were no satellites, GPS, lasers, or other new technologies or equipment—the work relied on relatively rudimentary devices. “Positioning was still done using the stars in the sky. The basic principle was to form a triangle using the target, observation points, and a specific star, and then calculate Everest’s height based on that. Now, with satellites, remote sensing, GPS, and lasers, although climbing Everest remains as arduous, the technology is far more advanced. In 2005, our surveying team remeasured Everest’s height, and the figure of 8848.13 meters was no longer used. However, the international community still holds the 8848.13-meter figure in relatively high regard.”
Due to Mr. Xue Zhang’s outstanding contributions to China’s surveying and mapping industry, he became one of the experts granted the State Council Special Allowance in 1992.
The footsteps of these surveyors covered every inch of China.
In the alumni directory of the 1952 graduating class of Nanjing Surveying and Mapping School, the reporter saw that geological and surveying departments in every province, municipality, and autonomous region—including Xinjiang, Hunan, Jiangsu, Guizhou, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Yunnan, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Qinghai, and others—had personnel from this group of surveyors. As Mr. Zhang Xueliang, former president of China Cartographic Publishing House, put it, “Before us, there weren’t many surveyors in the entire country. Once our 500-plus graduates were deployed all over the country to carry out geological exploration and surveying, we could be said to have stepped on every corner of the motherland. Whenever a major mineral deposit, oilfield, or coal mine was discovered in the country, you could find our classmates involved.”
Mr. Lu Huxing graduated from the surveying and mapping school and was transferred in 1958 to the surveying team of the Gansu Provincial Bureau of Geology. From then on, he worked continuously at the Gansu Geological Bureau until retiring in 1997. “Over those 40 years, I also witnessed the rise of numerous mining cities in Gansu. In the 1950s, our bureau discovered large-scale copper deposits in Baiyinchang, Gansu, which later developed into Baiyin City. In 1958, iron ore was discovered in Jingtieshan, leading to the development of Jiayuguan City. In the 1970s, nickel ore was found in Baijiazui, giving rise to Jinchang City.”
In the alumni roster compiled by the reunion committee, the reporter saw that nearly every influential mineral discovery in China—such as the Daqing Oilfield, Karamay Oilfield, Panzhihua Iron Mine, Baiyun Obo Iron Mine, Zhaoyuan Gold Mine, and Shengli Oilfield—involved participation from this group of students.
More than 30 died on the front lines of surveying.
At the 60-year reunion, many names in the roster were marked with boxes, indicating that those individuals could no longer attend the gathering. Mr. Jin Hongxin told the reporter that, to date, over 80 of the 500-plus classmates have passed away. “Among them, more than 30 died on the front lines of surveying. The conditions back then were extremely harsh—the roads and infrastructure in areas requiring surveying were very poor, and the terrain was unfamiliar. It truly meant forging paths through mountains and building bridges over rivers. Some of these classmates got lost and perished in deserts, some were caught in avalanches during surveying, and others fell off cliffs while crossing mountains. Because their remains could not be found, many of these fallen comrades have no graves or tombstones. They truly dedicated their lives to China’s surveying and mapping cause.”