This file contains a 60-year (1960-2019), high-resolution water surface evaporation dataset for China (70E-140E in longitude, 15N-55N in latitude). Two sub-datasets were provided. One dataset (Epan) represents evaporation estimates from a large-size pan (20 m2 and 2 m depth). This dataset was estimated by the Penman model, considering the effects of the heat storage change in the water and the uncertainty of the wind function on evaporation estimation. Monthly Epan and Elake estimates are provided, with a spatial resolution of 0.05° × 0.05°. The scaling factor of the the dataset is 0.1, and the pixels of no data are expressed as -999. All data are stored in the Network Common Data Form (NetCDF) files. More information can be found in the attributes of the NetCDF files.