Introduction to the National Economic Atlas of China

This article provides a systematic introduction to the National Economic Atlas of China, focusing on its scope, data sources, quality assurance, cartographic methods, and scholarly significance. Comprising 265 maps and more than 500 socioeconomic variables, the atlas primarily uses counties and cities as geographic units to portray China’s socioeconomic structure, industrial distribution, and regional disparities. It particularly demonstrates the shift of the country’s economic center toward the eastern and southern provinces. Its principal sources include the 1985–1986 Second National Industrial Census, the 1982 and 1990 population censuses, annual statistics compiled by the State Statistical Bureau, and specialized surveys supplied by more than twenty ministries and commissions. The article gives particular attention to data reliability. The industrial census employed multilevel manual and computerized controls and reported low overall error rates, while the Fourth Population Census likewise achieved a very small net enumeration error. These major datasets are therefore considered highly credible. Through database restructuring, computer-assisted cartography, interactive editing, scientific classification, and specialized indices, the atlas transforms an exceptionally large statistical database into accessible spatial information, supplemented by extensive explanatory texts. The author concludes that the atlas offers a rigorous and non-exaggerated representation of China’s socioeconomic conditions. It makes an important contribution to understanding uneven regional development, industrial spatial relationships, and resource allocation, while also reflecting greater statistical openness under reform and opening-up. Because printed atlases inevitably become outdated, the article advocates developing a new generation of continuously updated electronic atlases.