August 29 is National Surveying and Mapping Law Publicity Day in China. Looking back to this May, the news that Qingdao won the bid to host the 2030 Congress of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) is undoubtedly one of the most remarkable achievements on China's surveying and mapping calendar this year.

　　At 9:20 a.m. on May 29, 2026, at the Cape Town International Convention Centre in South Africa, the president of the International Federation of Surveyors (FIG) stepped up to the podium. The room fell silent. Days and nights of anxiety, countless emails, and sleepless hours were compressed into those few seconds of waiting. The president glanced at the result, paused, and then announced:

　　"QingDao, China."

　　The hall erupted.

　　With 78 votes against 28—a 73.6% approval rate—Qingdao defeated Seville, Spain, to secure the hosting rights for the FIG Congress 2030. It was the first time in the Federation's history, since its founding in Paris in 1878, that the congress would be held in China.

　　Zhang Zhihua, President of the Qingdao Geotechnical Investigation and Surveying Research Institute, sat in the front row, took off his glasses, and wiped his eyes. "We did it!" His voice trembled. "From Qingdao's participation in the first International Latitude Observation in 1926 to winning the FIG bid today—it's been exactly one hundred years."

　　At that moment, tears welled up in his eyes.

　　Few people know just how difficult it was to win this bid.