Bearings are one of the most important components in modern industry.Rolling contact fatigue(RCF)initiating from surface and subsurface is the major failure mode.In this paper,a typical high speed thrust angular contact ball bearing was selected,and the machined surface quality and near-surface microstruc-ture of the race-way and rolling ball were systematically characterized by using of a probe surface profiler,white light interferometer,optical microscopy(OM),scanning electron microscopy(SEM),elec-tron backscatter diffraction(EBSD)and transmission electron microscopy(TEM)combined with focused ion beam(FIB).Two kinds of precursor,probably resulting in pitting or spalling during the following rolling contact,were detected.One is the defects on the surface of either the race-way or the rolling ball,such as heavy machining marks,scratches and slag-hole.The other is nano-crystalline layer due to machining,in the outermost layer around the surface of race-way.The results may well lay foundation for our further research on RCF with the real part of such typical rolling bearings.