Nanyang Land Survey Department (南洋陸地測量司; 1906 - 1928)

Nanyang Land Survey Department (南洋陸地測量司; 1906 - 1928), NLSD for short, was a military survey and mapping office and school created in Nanjing, China, in Guangxu 32 or 1906. The service was attached to the Liangjiang Surveying and Mapping School (两江测绘学堂), attached to the Daxing Palace, which itself was established one year earlier in 1905. The school's aim was to modernize Qing mapping technology, incorporating western printing and surveying technology. The Qing administrators invited Japanese printers and mapmakers to Nanjing, where they taught triangulation, topographic mapping, and cartographic printing. They also facilitated the acquisition of western lithographic presses, and measuring tools. The NLSD remained active until 1928, Minguo 17, when surveying and mapping services were folded into a larger national agency.