The cholesteric liquid crystalline structure in chitosan/polyacrylic acid composite films was studied by surface techniques. A periodical lamellar-like structure was observed in the permanganic acid etched film surface by both scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), instead of the thumb-print texture which can be detected with polarized optical microscopy. It is suggested that the periodical lamellar-like structure is induced by the etching selectivity between cholesteric layers due to different molecular arrangement on the film surface. Four kinds of perpendicular disclinations, I.e. Χ→τ- + λ+, χ→λ- + τ+, χ→τ- + τ+ and χ→λ- + λ+, were found in the composite films from SEM observations. The smallest periodicity of lamellar-like structure (equals to halfpitch) is 20～40 nm measured with AFM.