After 44 years, 67 matches with 26 opponents in the peripheral matches of World Cup, their quest ended with success in Wulihe, Shenyang, in 2001.
Of course, the team may not have qualified before, but there have been other highlights in their footballing history, especially in the 1980s.
And it was at this time that two of the country's legendary players were at the height of their powers, Li Fusheng and Da Yu Zhao.
Li Fusheng was a stalwart of the team between 1976 and 1984 and still holds the record for most international appearances with 54 caps.
Da Yu Zhao is one of the best strikers that China has ever produced and was top scorer with 19 goals between 1983 and 1985.
It was his goals that helped China to their biggest success so far, reaching the final of the Asian Nations Cup in 1984.
After edging through the semi-finals with a 1-0 victory over Kuwait, China eventually lost 2-0 to Saudi Arabia.
It was a promising sign, and although China once again failed to qualify for the World Cup the following year, they made it to the Olympic Games for the first time in 1988.
The team secured the place with a 2-1 win over Japan in October of the previous year.
But once in Seoul, the team failed to get past the group stages, losing to Germany and Sweden and drawing with Tunisia.
In the 1990s, the finals of the World Cup continued to elude China, despite the experimentation with a number of foreign coaches, including German Klaus Schlappner and Englishman Bob Houghton.
But there were improvements on the domestic front.
In 1994, the Chinese Professional Soccer league was established and the national team had become a heavyweight of the Asian Cup competition, regularly reaching the latter stages.
After coach Houghton failed to lead the Olympic team to the Sydney Olympics in 2000, he was replaced by Bora Milutinovic from Yugoslavia.
Milutinovic immediately impressed fans and the media in the Asian Cup in Lebanon.
China may have only finished fourth, but a 2-2 draw with fierce rivals South Korea and a narrow defeat to Japan in the semi-finals appeased the critics.
A year later, Milutinovic ensured his place in the history books by leading his team to their first successful qualification campaign for the World Cup.