China中国

The first three volumes of the planned five-volume Chinese National Atlas have been published, covering Taiwan, Tibet-Sinkiang-Mongolia, and North China respectively. Volumes IV (South China) and V (general maps) are expected by October 1962. Edited by Dr. Chi-yun Chang of the Institute of Geography in Taipei, all place names appear in both Chinese and English. U.S. inquiries may be directed to Dr. Jen-hu Chang in Honolulu. Future projects include a Southeast Asia atlas, Taiwan water resources and agricultural planning, assessment of China's cultural and natural resources, Oriental urbanization, and Southeast Asia's economic potential.

Frederick Hung; Chang Chi-yun

This review introduces the National Atlas of China (1959–62), edited by Chang Chi-yun, a five-volume bilingual atlas reflecting the Nationalist Chinese perspective on national boundaries, including claims to Outer Mongolia and the MacMahon Line. It traces the historical development of Chinese national atlases from the 1718 K'ang Hsi atlas to the 1934 Shun Pao atlas. The reviewer notes the atlas's cartographic features, such as dual political and topographic maps for each province, varied scales, and bilingual indices, while criticizing its outdated administrative divisions. It also highlights the usefulness of the Taiwan and Hainan maps. The latter part of the text briefly mentions other cartographic-historical studies and bibliographic works. Overall, the atlas is valuable for historical and political geography, albeit reflecting a specific political stance.

This review evaluates the National Atlas of China, edited by Dr. Chang Chi-yun and published in five volumes in Taipei (1960-1963). The atlas employs the Lambert conformal projection, with scales varying by region: 1:200,000 to 1:100,000 for Taiwan and 1:2,000,000 for China proper. Contents include political divisions, topography, industry, and climate, supplemented by maps of major cities. Administrative divisions follow the 1947 promulgation, and place names include Wade-Giles romanization indices. Although cartographic techniques do not surpass the 1934 New Atlas of the Republic of China by Ding Wenjiang et al., the inclusion of soil, forest, and vegetation distribution maps, enriched frontier data, and large-scale Taiwan maps facilitating overviews of physical, human, and economic conditions demonstrate post-WWII advances in Chinese geographical research.

This article surveys the development of domestic and foreign atlases, focusing on representative Chinese atlases compiled and published since the 1950s. It first introduces the national atlas project and its value for natural resources, socio-economic development, and international exchange. Then it reviews in turn the content, compilation features, and academic significance of major comprehensive atlases such as the Provincial Atlas of the People's Republic of China, the Physical Atlas of China, the Atlas of the People's Republic of China (folio and octavo editions), the Historical Atlas of China, and the World Atlas. Regional and thematic atlases are exemplified by the Jiangsu Provincial Atlas, the Agricultural Atlas of Jiangsu, and the People's Commune Atlas, highlighting their design concepts, cartographic representation methods, and technical innovations such as loose-leaf binding and the use of communes as the smallest mapping unit. Specialized atlases including the Shenbao Atlas of China, geological, hydrogeological, climatological, and aerial remote-sensing atlases are also introduced. The foreign section briefly outlines the structure of the Great Soviet World Atlas. Overall, Chinese atlases have evolved from general reference works to integrated thematic compilations, with continuously improved cartographic standards, making important contributions to national economic construction, scientific research, and cultural education.

This article reports on major cartographic works published by China Cartographic Publishing House in 1990. The National Agricultural Atlas of the People's Republic of China, containing 300 maps, systematically reflects agricultural conditions, achievements, and distribution, and serves as a basis for agricultural planning and research. The Yellow River Basin Atlas, with 92 maps and 260,000 characters of explanatory text, presents the river's history, environment, and development, and is the world's most detailed basin atlas. The Dictionary of British Place Names includes about 20,000 entries, emphasizing historical sites with standardized transliteration and multiple indexes, making it a useful reference for geography, foreign affairs, and editorial work.

D. R. F. Taylor

The National Economic Atlas of China is a comprehensive thematic atlas documenting China’s socioeconomic transformation since the reform and opening-up. This paper introduces its background, content, data sources, quality control, computer cartography, and supporting text design. Taking counties and cities as basic geographical units, the atlas employs more than 500 socioeconomic variables and draws on major datasets such as the Second Industrial Census (1985–1986) and the Third and Fourth Population Censuses. It systematically depicts economic growth, industrial structural change, and regional uneven development, with eastern and southern coastal provinces particularly outstanding. The author argues that the quality of census data is high enough to guarantee reliability. The atlas makes innovative use of computer-assisted mapping, large database management, and interactive editing, while the accompanying texts update and explain each map. As one of the most impressive national economic atlases ever published, it provides a unique scientific record of China’s development and symbolizes the nation’s opening-up achievements. The paper also briefly discusses imagery transformation models for formalizing traditional map compilation procedures.

Gregory Veeck

This review evaluates The National Economic Atlas of China. Originating from the national atlas project initiated in 1958, the atlas was compiled through the collaboration of over twenty ministries and research institutions. It comprises 265 full-color maps systematically covering resources, population, agriculture, industry, transportation, commerce, science, education, and other economic-geographic topics, presenting more than 500 variables at the county level for the first time. The review praises its integrated data and creative cartographic designs, while noting the absence of per capita income and poverty-related maps, as well as occasional lack of data sources and variable definitions. Overall, the atlas is a comprehensive, beautifully produced reference that significantly advances the study of China's economic geography and raises many questions for future research.

Clifton W. Pannell; Paul L. Knox

This article is an academic review by Clifton W. Pannell of The National Economic Atlas of China (Oxford University Press, 1994), compiled by the Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions. As the latest volume in the National Atlas Series, the atlas was published bilingually and systematically depicts the spatial patterns of China’s reforming economy in the late 1980s. The review outlines the atlas’s compilation background, data sources, cartographic techniques, and structural coverage, noting its treatment of resources, agriculture, industry, transportation, commerce, urban construction, and education. Using GIS and computer-assisted mapping, the project processed about 100 million bytes of data. The author highly commends the atlas as an unprecedented spatial portrayal of China’s transitional economy and regards it as a standard reference for studying China’s economic geography. Meanwhile, he points out some flaws, such as inconsistent areal mapping units in sparsely populated western China, overly complex multivariate maps, and occasional registration or color anomalies, but overall affirms the atlas’s scholarly quality and craftsmanship.

This article introduces the background, compilation, and features of the National Economic Atlas of China and its electronic version. As a key national research project, the atlas was compiled through multi-institutional cooperation and contains 265 maps with 250,000 words of explanatory text, comprehensively presenting China's resources, population, and socio-economic development across multiple sectors. The compilation employs highly integrated and analytically rigorous methods, and the atlas has received high praise both domestically and internationally. The electronic version, developed with EA-ward software, is rich in content, intuitive, and easy to operate, and has been regarded as reaching a world-leading level in electronic atlas design. The authors also suggest updating the atlas every two years to reflect timely economic information.

The National Ordinary Atlas of the People's Republic of China, published by China Cartographic Publishing House in 1995, is the first volume of the national atlas series. This paper reviews the atlas from the perspectives of its compilation history, overall structure, cartographic design, and academic significance. The compilation originated from a national key scientific research project formulated in 1958 under the auspices of the State Council; although interrupted for nearly three decades, it has now been brought to completion with an entirely new appearance. The atlas consists of three major map groups—prefatory maps, regional maps, and provincial maps—supplemented by enlarged maps of typical areas, city plans, and a place-name index, covering 180 pages in total and listing over 42,000 geographical names. It is distinguished by explicit thematic objectives, rigorous design, rational arrangement of map sheets, and a rich amount of information. In particular, the provincial map group forms an independent system for each province, and the harmonious and lucid color schemes ensure legibility despite the heavy information load. The map projections are scientifically selected and fully annotated, and the typography is well graded and visually comfortable. The author concludes that the atlas elevates the theory and technology of atlas compilation in China to a new height, reflects distinctive Chinese features and style, and marks a significant milestone in the history of Chinese cartography.

The National Atlas of the People's Republic of China (General Atlas) has been officially published, a long-awaited event in China's cartographic community. As the first volume of the national atlas series, it was compiled by over a hundred cartographers from multiple institutions and comprehensively presents China's geographic features and regional characteristics. The atlas adopts the latest field-survey data, 1:1,000,000 topographic maps, and satellite imagery, and draws on the national place-name survey results, ensuring authority and currency. Its compilation emphasizes both inheritance and innovation: the themes are complete and systematic, covering general maps, regional maps, provincial maps, sea-area maps, and city maps; the content is detailed and up-to-date, with information updated to the end of 1991; the design is novel, using coloured relief shading for sea areas for the first time, improving hypsometric tinting for the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and adopting a three-step colour scheme based on China's three major topographic steps. Cartographers believe that this atlas breaks through traditional mapping modes, organically integrates scientific, ideological, practical and artistic values, and reaches an internationally advanced level. It is a historic contribution to national cartography and will play an important role in economic construction, national defence, scientific research and education.

This article celebrates the publication of the National General Atlas of the People's Republic of China and expounds the historical contributions of cartography to human spatial cognition. It first argues that maps are the most essential and irreplaceable tool for spatial cognition, demonstrating five functions: forming holistic mental images, providing correct visual estimation and comparability of spatial distributions, revealing spatial correlations among phenomena, integrating statistical and spatial information, and correcting erroneous environmental mental images. It then analyzes how the national atlas, by virtue of its integrated and serialized structure, offers a multi-dimensional environmental view, a zoomable nested cognition mode, and an improved spatial literacy for readers. In response to the challenge of new information technologies, the author contends that an atlas is not merely a technical product but a scientific achievement embodying accumulated civilization; it remains one of the most effective and convenient tools for spatial data visualization, and human creative design capability is still irreplaceable. Finally, the article reviews the compilation history and underscores the atlas's scientific, cultural, and historical significance.

The National Ordinary Atlas of the People's Republic of China has been published after years of effort by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping. The author praises it for its rich content, clear layers, fine printing, and innovation, offering national and provincial leaders a reference on the country's geography. Compared with Zeng Shiying's Shenbao Atlas, this new work has 'surpassed its master.' The article traces atlas production from manual to automated methods, discusses the role of computers and multimedia, and predicts that future atlases will evolve into expert systems with full automation, highlighting cartography's growing service to economic development and daily life.

叶夫捷耶夫, O. A.; 科托娃, T. B.; 吉库诺夫, B. C.

This review evaluates the National Physical Atlas of China (1999), a monumental cartographic work compiled by over 300 specialists from nearly 40 Chinese institutions under the leadership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and with Professor Liao Ke as editor‑in‑chief. The atlas comprises 540 maps on 225 pages, systematically structured into five sections: introductory maps, physical environment, natural resources, natural hazards, and nature utilization and conservation. The evaluation highlights the atlas’s interdisciplinary and encyclopedic character, designed to support environmental change studies, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable development. By integrating extensive field data with satellite remote sensing, the atlas offers innovative thematic coverage, including maps of heavy metal bioaccumulation in fish, potential net primary productivity under hypothetical climate‑change scenarios (precipitation ±10%, temperature +4°C), temporal distribution of earthquakes, and human diseases caused by selenium, iodine and fluorine deficiencies. Cartographically, the work successfully merges traditional drafting with computer‑aided multimedia and GIS techniques, achieving high scientific accuracy and aesthetic quality at a primary scale of 1:10 000 000. The review concludes that the National Physical Atlas of China is an unparalleled scientific reference, providing critical support for national security, education, and global environmental cooperation, and it stands as one of the finest national atlases published in recent decades.

The National Physical Atlas of China (1999 edition) represents a major comprehensive scientific achievement in the fields of geoscience and biology in China. The atlas systematically reflects the complex and diverse natural conditions and abundant natural resources of the country in the 20th century, elucidates the formation and evolution of the natural environment, and highlights the three major themes of natural resources, natural disasters, and nature utilization and protection, emphasizing the relationship between human and nature. Significant innovations and breakthroughs were achieved in the design and compilation of the atlas, which for the first time adopted fully digital computer-aided design, editing, and automatic plate-making technology, realizing a fundamental transformation from traditional techniques to modern information technology. The atlas not only provides important scientific bases for national resource assessment, land management, ecological protection, and disaster prevention, but also makes significant contributions to implementing the strategy of sustainable development and promoting international academic exchange.

Ke Liao

The National Physical Atlas of China is a large-format comprehensive scientific reference atlas representing national achievement in atlas compilation, published by China Atlas Press in 1999, with Chinese and English editions issued simultaneously. It consists of five sections—Preface Maps, Physical Environment, Natural Resources, Natural Disasters, and Natural Utilization and Reservation—organized into 18 map groups, containing 540 map sheets, 115 charts and photos, and nearly 300,000 words of map explanations. The atlas systematically integrates the findings of integrated scientific surveys and long-term observational data accumulated since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, together with historical records spanning thousands of years. It comprehensively depicts the natural environment, resource endowments, disaster distribution, and the achievements in nature utilization and conservation across China, thereby providing a scientific basis for resource assessment, ecological conservation, disaster prevention, and socioeconomic planning. The compilation embodies multiple innovations: it extends and updates basic scientific data in both spatial and temporal dimensions; it highlights sustainable development concerns by devoting about 40% of its content to resources, disasters, and nature protection; it substantially expands plant and animal maps reflecting biodiversity research; it introduces new topics such as lithospheric dynamics, paleogeography, and global-change response; and it pioneers a fully digital workflow for the design, compilation, and automatic plate-making of a large-format national atlas, reaching an internationally advanced level in the late 1990s. The atlas has been acclaimed by international scholars as one of the finest national atlases published in recent decades, and its compilation marks an epoch-making event in China’s scientific and technological life. Future work will establish a national physical atlas information system and publish an electronic edition incorporating dynamic, 3D, and analytical capabilities, contributing further to the Digital China initiative.

The National Atlas of China is a major innovative achievement of Chinese science and technology in the 20th century. This paper reviews its compilation history and focuses on its characteristics and innovations: it is a complete collection of information on China's nature, population, economy, society and history; it systematically summarizes research results in geosciences, biology, environmental science, economics and history; it implements the strategy of sustainable development and highlights the relationship between humans and nature; and it realizes the fundamental transformation from traditional techniques to fully digital and automated production, with electronic and Internet atlases meeting the needs of the information society. Compiled by over 1,700 experts from 216 institutions, the atlas contains more than 2,580 maps in five volumes. Its completion has great scientific significance, application value and social benefits, promotes the development of Chinese cartography and exerts international influence, marking a milestone in the development of modern Chinese cartography.

Qingwen Qi

National atlases are authoritative cartographic works that reflect a country's overall status in science and technology, economy, society, resources, and environment, and are regarded as symbols of a nation's scientific and cultural level. This paper first reviews the history of national atlas compilation worldwide, then highlights China's achievements in compiling the first and second editions of the National Atlases of China (NAC). The first edition, initiated in 1956, comprised four volumes (general, physical, economic, and historical), with the physical atlas completed in 1965. The second edition, launched in 1982, consisted of five volumes (general, physical, economic, agricultural, and historical). The National Economic Atlas of China and the National Physical Atlas of China, in both Chinese and English versions, were published successively in the 1990s, followed by their electronic versions, and received first-class awards for scientific and technological progress from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The second edition was directed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, involving more than 500 institutions and over 3,000 experts, representing an internationally advanced level at the time. Based on systematic summarization of the previous two editions, this paper distills two major theories—comprehensive mapping and statistical mapping—as well as design principles for electronic atlases and new technological methods. The paper then introduces the design scheme for the New Century Edition of the National Atlases of China (NCNAC), covering its orientation, technological system, volume arrangement, and key scientific and technological problems to be solved. The NCNAC plans 14 volumes, including satellite imagery, three-dimensional landforms, geomorphology, geology, marine, population, urban and town, regional sustainable development, land resources, energy resources, hydrology, ecological environment, administration and transportation, and tourism and recreation. Key challenges to be addressed include intelligent cartographic editing, extraction of thematic information through data mining, consistency among printed, electronic, and internet versions, information security and copyright issues, timely data updating, balancing the informational and functional needs of scientists and the public, and harmonizing scientific features with commercial management. The paper concludes that China's two editions of national atlases have contributed significantly to cartography worldwide, and the New Century Edition will further promote the development of cartography and geographic information science in China.

The national atlas is an important symbol of a country's scientific, technological and cultural level. In the mid-1950s, China included the compilation of a national atlas in its national scientific development plan, and in 1958 established an editorial committee headed by Zhu Kezhen. The project was interrupted by the Cultural Revolution but resumed in 1981 with the approval of the State Council. The atlas was planned in five volumes: general, physical, economic, agricultural and historical. The compilation involved 216 institutions and more than 1,700 experts and scholars, and the volumes were published successively from 1990 to 1999, with Chinese-English bilingual editions and electronic versions. The national atlas systematically summarizes information on China's nature, population, economy, society and history, providing authoritative references for macro decision-making, scientific research and education. It received multiple national awards and high praise from the international cartographic community. The project also promoted the compilation of provincial atlases and cultivated a large number of cartographic talents, making it a milestone in the development of modern Chinese cartography.