With the establishment and development of New China, China’s exploration engineering has grown from nothing, from small to large, from weak to strong. Through the persistence and hard work of several generations of prospectors, the geological drilling technological level in China has basically kept pace with the world, reaching the world advanced level in many aspects in the past 70 years. And some drilling technology and equipment are in the leading position in the world. During the celebration of the 70th anniversary of New China founding, the development of exploration engineering in China is summarized from the perspective of the whole geological industry and even the whole national industrial development in the past 70 years, which can be roughly divided into fourperiods: The initial period of the exploration engineering in the early founding days of New China (1950s to 1960s); The steady and rapid development period of exploration engineering (1970s to 1980s); Expanding service area period of exploration engineering (roughly the last 15 years of the 20th century); Comprehensive and in-depth development period of exploration engineering, gradually entering the world-class stage (since the 21st century). The paper review and summarize the major events and main technical achievements in these four stages respectively, and illuminate the important contributions made by exploration engineering to national economic construction and China’s being the unique country with the most complete manufacturing system in the world up to now. Looking forward to developing prospects of drilling engineering in deep earth detection, ocean drilling, polar drilling, exploration of hydrate and dry hot rock new energy, environment engineering etc, as well as drilling intellectualization, etc.