Taking four influential Chinese surveying and mapping journals as the data source, 5863 papers published during the period of 2003–2013 were obtained. Using the method of bibliometrics and visual analysis, summarizing the surveying and mapping papers in the past ten years (2003-2013), research themes, authors, and geographical distribution were analyzed. In the study, the papers of geodesy, cartography and GIS are 59.9%, more than half of all the papers. We also determine that the core author group has 131 authors, mainly of whom are from big cities. 90% of top ten cities on the number of publishing papers are capital cities or municipalities directly under the central government.In conclusion, we found that the research focus was different every year, and the research content was richness, the content of geodesy, cartography and GIS were widely researched, and the development of surveying and mapping is imbalanced in China.