A monumental cartographic work from the 1980s is published.

Summary

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.