Aerial survey regiment measures China
( 2003-09-09 11:23) (PLA Daily)
In the past 49 years, a aerial survey regiment of the Lanzhou Military Area
Command by the Jialing River at the foot of the Qinling Mountains stationed, has
done a wonderful job in measuring the whole of China and contributed its share
to the building of a more prosperous China. The regiment has made a total of 2
4219 flights around China, equivalent to more than 2 200 full circles around the
earth. These flights covered an area of 41.08 million km2, which means that they
have combed through China for more than 4 times.
Ever since its establishment, the regiment has fulfilled a lot of major
survey tasks by bearing in mind that the importance of Chinese interests is
above everything else. For a long period of time, the world believed that the
highest Mountain Qomolangma (Mt. Everest) was 8, 882m tall and the figure was
printed on all maps in those days. The figure was a result of Indians' work on
surveying longitudes and latitudes from the ground and Frenchmen's mathematic
calculations according to geographical principles. But the Chinese people wanted
to know exactly how tall the mountain was. In September 1974, the aerial survey
regiment was assigned the task of measuring the Qomolangma. The commander of the
regiment led a team of 96 people to survey the mountain. After several
months'flight in the forbidden area, they produced an accurate measurement of
8848.13m, changing the long-standing wrong figure.
The tasks regiment undertakes are meaningful to China. Soldiers of the
regiment fly their planes to measure the whole country from the Nansha and Xisha
Islands in the south to the Heihe and Mohe Rivers in the north, from East China
Sea in the east to the Loess Plateau in the west. They scored numerous firsts.
For example, they conducted the first human aerial survey over Qomolangma
Mountain and the first photographic surveys of Chinese satellite
launchings,experiments of atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs and intercontinental
missiles. It surveyed the first Chinese mountain railroad Baoji-Chengdu
Railroad-the and drew the first modern map of China and the first version of
military maps. Other successful missions include borderline surveying to delimit
the borders with Russia, Korea, Vietnam, Mongolia, India and Laos. In addition,
the regiment has accomplished the aerial surveying tasks for the location
selection of the Three Gorges Project, the Gezhouba Dam Water Conservancy Hub
Project, the Lanzhou-Xinjiang Railroad, the Beijing-Jiulong Railroad, the
South-North Water Diversion Project, the Dayawan Nuclear Power Plant, making
great contributions to defending Chinese national interests and building a
stronger Chinese economy.
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