National Agricultural Atlas of the People's Republic of China
中华人民共和国国家农业地图集
China · 中国地图出版社 · 1989
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Book Reviews: The National Economic Atlas of China
Veeck, Gregory · 1995
This review evaluates the newly published *Economic Atlas of China*, a landmark cartographic work that presents the most comprehensive English-language summary of China's complex economic geography to date. The atlas, part of a revived National Atlas project, features 265 full-color maps organized into ten thematic sections—including resources, population, agriculture, industry, transportation, and provincial economic profiles—with data often resolved at the county level. Over 500 distinct variables are mapped, drawing on compilations by more than twenty ministries and key statistical agencies. The review praises the atlas’s superb cartography and high production standards, noting its value as both a reference volume and a source of research inspiration. While the coverage is vast, several omissions are highlighted, such as the absence of per capita income maps and inconsistent provision of data sources, which could limit secondary analyses. Certain maps would also benefit from standardization or relative measures rather than absolute counts. The four accompanying handbooks, though prone to separation from the oversized volume, offer expanded definitions and regional economic sketches that enhance interpretability. Despite these minor shortcomings, the atlas is deemed an indispensable resource for any research library. It not only consolidates an immense amount of economic information but also visually stimulates important geographic questions about regional inequality, development dynamics, and the spatial patterns of contemporary China. Ultimately, the reviewer concludes that the atlas masterfully blends scholarly utility with artistic excellence, setting a benchmark for national economic atlases worldwide.
Classic Milestone: National Atlas
Unknown · 2014
The National Atlas of China is widely recognized as a hallmark of a nation's scientific, technological, and cultural achievement. Its compilation was first conceived in the mid‑1950s and formally launched in 1958 under a national editorial board chaired by Zhu Kezhen. The original plan encompassed four volumes—general, physical, economic, and historical—and was later supplemented with an agricultural volume. After an interruption during the Cultural Revolution, the project was reinstated in 1981 by the State Council as a key national research initiative. Over the following two decades, the five atlases were completed and published in succession, representing a massive collaborative effort that involved more than 216 institutions and over 1,300 specialists. Together, these volumes comprehensively assemble data on China’s physical environment, population, economy, society, and history, thereby providing critical scientific foundations for macro-level planning, decision-making, and scholarly research. The atlas series has received multiple national science and technology awards and has been exhibited at international cartographic conferences and book fairs. Leading international cartographers have praised it as an exemplary model for other nations and an extraordinary contribution to understanding contemporary China. Beyond its own merits, the compilation process greatly stimulated the production of provincial atlases, accelerated the advancement of Chinese cartography, and cultivated a generation of mapping experts. The completion of the National Atlas of China is an unprecedented scientific and cultural undertaking both domestically and globally; it stands as the apex of modern Chinese cartography and a historic milestone in the field’s development.
A monumental cartographic work from the 1980s is published.
Unknown · 1990
This report announces the forthcoming publication of three major cartographic and geographical reference works by China Cartographic Publishing House in 1990. The first, the *National Agricultural Atlas of the People’s Republic of China*, is the initial volume of a long-planned national atlas series that was first included among national key research projects in 1956, suspended, and resumed in 1981; the complete series will eventually comprise five thematic volumes. Edited by the renowned geographer and academician Zhou Lisan, the agricultural atlas contains 300 maps that systematically depict agricultural production conditions, distribution patterns, and scientific achievements since 1949. It serves as a crucial basis for agricultural master planning, resource development and protection, and scientific research. The second work, the *Atlas of the Yellow River Basin*, compiled by the Yellow River Conservancy Commission, employs 92 double-page maps, 260,000 words of explanatory text, and more than 100 photographs, all using the latest observations and scientific findings to illustrate the river’s history, environment, and its harnessing and development. It is reported to be the most extensive and detailed river basin atlas in the world and an indispensable resource for further management of the Yellow River. The third publication, the *Gazetteer of Place Names of the United Kingdom*, is designed to meet the needs of geographers, international studies researchers, and editors. Based on the British national atlas and UK gazetteers and updated to the end of 1989, it compiles approximately 20,000 place names, covering settlements, historic sites, rivers, mountains, lakes, and bays. Special attention is given to historically significant names (e.g., Hadrian’s Wall, Woburn Abbey, Stratford-upon-Avon, Loch Ness) and to transliteration accuracy: English names follow the BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names and Daniel Jones’s *English Pronouncing Dictionary* while respecting conventional usage, while Celtic-derived names (Welsh, Gaelic, Irish, etc.) are transcribed according to the pronunciation rules of their respective languages. Entries are arranged in Roman alphabetical order and supplemented with a Chinese stroke-order index, six appendices, and two colour maps. Together, these three works provide foundational cartographic and toponymic datasets for national situational awareness, river basin management, and international scholarly exchange.
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