Some characteristic features of the past regional geological survey in China have been summarized in view of its mission, i. e. it has been carried out principally in a traditional way. It is suggested and described that in the 21st century in additon to transportation, communication, recording and digital map making and so on, the regional geological survey should further meet the requiements from land resources, geological disasters, as well as improvement of environmental quality. Being directed by conception of modern geoscientific theory, it should conduct multi-disciplinary investigation, collect and regularize data, so as to realize three-dimensional multi-parametric mapping and theoretic synthesis. Several decades´ investigation in China has demonstrated that geological structure in depth is different from that either observed at surface, even at shallow depths, or inferred on the basis of geological structure at surface. In the future, deep investigation should be strengthened, with techniques for deep exploration developed. Obtaining high-resolution images from various depths will enable to people improve their understanding of the Earth to a new level, to set up completely new space-time evolution concept, so that to resolve resource and environment problems effectively.