The glaciology developed in the West during the 19th century and foucsed on the study of Glaciers.This kind of knowledge was then introduced to China in 1854 through missionary publications. At the time, several Chinese translations were proposed, among which“冰川” (bingchuan) was the popular one. In the early 20th century, the Japanese derived the Japanese term “冰河” (binghe)，which entered China and shocked the existing translation terms. After 1911, most geological publications and terminology standardization tended to adopt the Chinese term“冰河”. However, starting in the 1920s, the Chinese geologists such as Li Siguang conducted pioneering research on glaciers in China, the term “冰川” gradually gained acceptance around Chinese Geologists. The new Committee for the Unification of Scientific Terminology made “冰川” the standard term in 1954 and the competition between the “binghe” and “bingchuan” finally ended. This conflict over termms shows how Chinese geological terms changed. It reflects how the Geology developed in China, which from translating foreign knowledge to finally becoming a mature and independent discipline.