Abstract: In the late Qing period, the contour was introduced into China, and originally called “pingpoumianxian”. In 1886 for the first time the concept of “denggaojiexian” was appeared. During the period of the republic of China, there were some synonyms for contour, some were called “denggaoxian”, “denggaoquxian”in the book about geography and cartography, and others were called “quxianshi”, “shuipingquxian” in the book about military. After the founding of PRC, the name of the contour gradually unified in topography.

Key words: contour, denggaoxian, history of cartography