Classic Milestone: National Atlas

Summary

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.