Tectonic deformation in continental China is mainly associated with collision between the Indian and Eurasian plates. Northward indentation of the Indian plate has resulted in a continental deformation belt which is the most active,complex,and broad in the world. Prior to GPS technology,research of tectonic deformation relied mainly on geomorphic investigation of active faults and focal mechanism solutions of strong earthquakes associated with the fault ruptures,which were not so accurate and lacked sufficient spatio-temporal resolution. The very first experiment of using GPS to monitor crustal deformation was conducted by the China Earthquake Administration in 1988,followed by the national “Pandeng” project,and the “Capital Circle” project,etc. Not until the foundation and execution of the “Crustal Movement Observation Network of China”,which is the big science project of the ninth five-year plan,deformation pattern of continental China has then become clear. GPS data from more than 2000 sites have been collected in recent years by the “Tectonic and Environmental Monitoring Network”,which,combined with other data accumulated over the last 30 years,is capable of producing a unified high resolution velocity field covering continental China and its vicinity and with millimeter/sub-millimeter precision. This fundamental product helps to characterize kinematics of tectonic deformation and to study its dynamic property and process for continental China. It also provides critical constraints for the study of tectonic formation and evolution of the Tibetan Plateau and its vicinity,and lays strong foundation for the quantification of earthquake potential and mitigation of seismic hazard in the region.